1st Edition

Intelligence and Strategic Culture

Edited By Isabelle Duyvesteyn Copyright 2013
    112 Pages
    by Routledge

    106 Pages
    by Routledge

    Reliable information on potential security threats is not just the result of diligent intelligence work but also a product of context and culture. The volume explores the nexus between the intelligence process and strategic culture. How can and does the strategic outlook of the United States and the United Kingdom in particular, influence the intelligence gathering, assessment and dissemination process?

    This book contains an assessment of how political agendas and ideological outlook have significant influence on both the content and process of intelligence. It looks in particular at the premise of hearts and minds policies, culture and intelligence gathering in counterinsurgency operations; at case studies from imperial Malaya and Iran in the 1950s and at instances of intelligence failure, e.g. the case of Iraq in 2003. How was intelligence, or the lack thereof, a product of political culture and how did it play a role in the political praxis?

    The book shows that political agendas and the ideological outlook have a significant influence upon both the content and process of intelligence.

    This book was originally published as a special issue of Intelligence and National Security.

    1. Foreword Joop van Reijn, former Head of Dutch Military Intelligence

    2. Introduction Isabelle Duyvesteyn, Utrecht University, The Netherlands

    3. Hearts and minds, cultural awareness and good intelligence: the blue print for successful counter-insurgency? Isabelle Duyvesteyn, Utrecht University, The Netherlands

    4. ‘The Sharp End of the Intelligence Machine’. The Rise of the Malayan Police Special Branch 1948-1955 Georgina Sinclair, Open University, UK

    5. Sins of Omission and Commission; Strategic Cultural Factors and U.S. Intelligence Failures during the Cold War Matthew Aid, independent publicist

    6. All that Glitters is not Gold: the 1953 Coup against Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran Adreas Etges, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany

    7. British Intelligence Failures in Iraq John Morrison, Former Deputy Chief of Defence Intelligence and Head of Defence Intelligence Analysis Staff

    8. Intelligence and Strategic Culture; a perspective from the field of intelligence studies Philip Davies, Brunel University, UK

    9 . Intelligence and Strategic Culture; a historical perspective Philip Murphy, Director of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, UK

    10. Intelligence and Strategic Culture; a sociological perspective Christa Moesgaard, Danish Institute for International Studies, Denmark

    11. Summary and Conclusions Isabelle Duyvesteyn, Utrecht University, The Netherlands

    Biography

    Isabelle Duyvesteyn is a senior lecturer/researcher at the Department of History of International Relations at Utrecht University, The Netherlands. She works in the area of war and peace studies and has published previously on terrorism, insurgency, civil war and strategy.