Overview

This sweeping history of the development of professional, institutionalized intelligence examines the implications of the fall of the state monopoly on espionage today and beyond. During the Cold War, only the alliances clustered around the two superpowers maintained viable intelligence endeavors, whereas a century ago, many states could aspire to be competitive at these dark arts. Today, larger states have lost their monopoly on intelligence skills and capabilities as technological and sociopolitical changes have made it possible for private organizations and even individuals to unearth secrets and influence global events. Historian Michael Warner addresses the birth of professional intelligence in Europe at the beginning of the twentieth century and the subsequent rise of US intelligence during the Cold War. He brings this history up to the present day as intelligence agencies used the struggle against terrorism and the digital revolution to improve capabilities in the 2000s. Throughout, the book examines how states and other entities use intelligence to create, exploit, and protect secret advantages against others, and emphasizes how technological advancement and ideological competition drive intelligence, improving its techniques and creating a need for intelligence and counterintelligence activities to serve and protect policymakers and commanders. The world changes intelligence and intelligence changes the world. This sweeping history of espionage and intelligence will be a welcomed by practitioners, students, and scholars of security studies, international affairs, and intelligence, as well as general audiences interested in the evolution of espionage and technology.

Full Product Details

9781626161030

Table of Contents

Reviews

Explores a series of international, domestic, or technological crises and how governments and intelligence professionals scrambled to meet these challenges, only to see these innovations shape future events in sometimes unanticipated and unwanted ways. -- James J. Wirtz, Political Science Quarterly A spectacular contribution to the literature. In it he covers an enormous amount of complex and nuanced material in an extremely easy style, yet his substantial chapter notes and bibliography fully support the academically inclined reader. Were I ever again to teach the history of intelligence, Rise and Fall would unquestionably be my primary text. -- Captain Steven E. Maffeo, U.S. Naval Reserve (Retired), Proceedings Were I ever again to teach the history of intelligence, [this] would unquestionably be my primary text. -- Proceedings A good guide to the nature of both sides of intelligence systems -- Father James V. Schall, S.J., Catholic Pulse A fine assessment of intelligence processes through the years. -- Midwest Book Review

Author Information

Michael Warner is a historian for the Department of Defense and was formerly a historian for the Central Intelligence Agency and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. He has taught at American University, Johns Hopkins University, and Columbia University.

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