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Books > Social sciences > Warfare & defence > Defence strategy, planning & research > Military intelligence
This unique book presents an accurate and reliable assessment of the Special Operations Executive (SOE). It brings together leading authors to examine the organization from a range of key angles. This study shows how historians have built on the first international conference on the SOE at the Imperial War Museum in 1998. The release of many records then allowed historians to develop the first authoritative analyses of the organization's activities and several of its agents and staff officers were able to participate. Since this groundbreaking conference, fresh research has continued and its original papers are here amended to take account of the full range of SOE documents that have been released to the National Archives. The fascinating stories they tell range from overviews of work in a single country to particular operations and the impact of key personalities. SOE was a remarkably innovative organization. It played a significant part in the Allied victory while its theories of clandestine warfare and specialised equipment had a major impact upon the post-war world. SOE proved that war need not be fought by conventional methods and by soldiers in uniform. The organization laid much of the groundwork for the development of irregular warfare that characterized the second half of the twentieth century and that is still here, more potent than ever, at the beginning of the twenty-first. This book will be of great interest to students of World War II history, intelligence studies and special operations, as well as general readers with an interest in SOE and World War II.
‘One of our very best writers on France.’ Antony Beevor After publishing an acclaimed biography of Jean Moulin, leader of the French Resistance, Patrick Marnham received an anonymous letter from a person who claimed to have worked for British Intelligence during the war. The ex-spy praised his book but insisted that he had missed the real ‘treasure’. The letter drew Marnham back to the early 1960s when he had been taught French by a mercurial woman – a former Resistance leader, whose SOE network was broken on the same day that Moulin was captured and who endured eighteen months in Ravensbrück concentration camp. Could these two events have been connected? His anonymous correspondent offered a tantalising set of clues that seemed to implicate Churchill and British Intelligence in the catastrophe. Drawing on a deep knowledge of France and original research in British and French archives, War in the Shadows exposes the ruthless double-dealing of the Allied intelligence services and the Gestapo through one of the darkest periods of the Second World War. It is a story worthy of Le Carré, but with this difference – it is not fiction. ‘A melange of Le Grand Meaulnes and The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. It is unforgettable.’ Ferdinand Mount, TLS, Books of the Year ‘A masterly analysis, impeccably presented.’ Allan Mallinson, Spectator ‘Fascinating… Marnham has a vast and scholarly knowledge of this often treacherous world.’ Caroline Moorehead, Literary Review
The vital ingredient in the formulation and execution of a successful foreign policy is intelligence. For the USA, as the Bay of Pigs incident and the Iran-Contra affair have shown, controlling intelligence is a problem which policy-makers and concerned citizens have rarely examined and imperfectly understood. Of the seven contributors, five have direct experience of working with or in intelligence, and all have written extensively on the subject.
"MI6 and the Machinery of Spying "traces the development of the
agency's internal structure from its inception until the end of the
Cold War. The analysis examines how its management structure has
been driven by its operational environment on the one hand and its
position within the machinery of British central government on the
other. Close attention is paid to the agency's institutional links
to its consumers in Whitehall and Downing Street, as well as to the
causes and consequences of its operational organization and
provisions for counter-espionage and security.
"MI6 and the Machinery of Spying "traces the development of the
agency's internal structure from its inception until the end of the
Cold War. The analysis examines how its management structure has
been driven by its operational environment on the one hand and its
position within the machinery of British central government on the
other. Close attention is paid to the agency's institutional links
to its consumers in Whitehall and Downing Street, as well as to the
causes and consequences of its operational organization and
provisions for counter-espionage and security.
During the late 1940s the newly created CIA, in a loose alliance with anti-communist intellectuals and trade unionists, launched a massive, clandestine effort to win the Cold War allegiance of the European left. Drawing on numerous personal interviews and document collections on both sides of the Atlantic, this book examines in detail the origins of the CIA's covert campaign and assesses it's impact on the US's principal Cold War ally, Britain, focusing particularly on attempts to combat communist penetration of British trade unions, stimulate support within the Labour party for key American strategic aims, such as European union, and influence the politics of Bloomsbury literati. The results of this secret intervention were complex and far-reaching. CIA support for such ventures as the Congress for Cultural Freedom and its London-based magazine, Encounter, subtly transformed the political culture of the British left, making it more Atlanticist and less socialist. In other ways, however, the hidden hand of American intelligence failed to control its British assets, whose behaviour often frustrated their secretive patrons in Washington. For that matter, not even the CIA's agen
BRIXMIS (British Commander-in-Chief's Mission to the Group Soviet Forces of Occupation in Germany) is one of the most covert elite units of the British Army. They were dropped in behind 'enemy lines' ten months after the Second World War had ended and continued with their intelligence-gathering missions until the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989. During this period Berlin was a hotbed of spying between East and West. BRIXMIS was established as a trusted channel of communication between the Red Army and the British Army on the Rhine. However, they acted in the shadows to steal advanced Soviet equipment and penetrate top-secret training areas. Here Steve Gibson offers a new understanding of the complex British role in the Cold War.
In the beginning just a handful of men were raised to be Adolf Hitler's personal bodyguard, the SS - meaning protection squad - this small group eventually became a multi-headed beast with many responsibilities. It ran internal security with ruthless efficiency; it implemented the horrific Nazi racial policy and ran the concentration camps; it was an important, and in the end solely reliable, part of the Reich's intelligence services; and perhaps most strikingly, it developed its own combat units. Numbering over 900,000 soldiers by the end of 1944, the Waffen-SS (Armed SS) campaigned in Poland, western Europe, the Balkans and the Soviet Union, fighting to the end in the ruins of Berlin. SS: Hitler's Instrument of Terror is a balanced, authoritative account of Hitler's private army, the very cornerstone of the Third Reich's internal security forces. Every aspect of the SS is examined in full: its units and their battles, the foreign legions, the various non-military departments, and the key figures who led formations in the field and oversaw internal affairs within Nazi Germany, men such as Heinrich Himmler,`Sepp' Dietrich, Theodor Eicke and Kurt Meyer. In addition, the questions of atrocities committed against prisoners and civilians, and the SS's role in the concentration camp system, are addressed in full. SS: Hitler's Instrument of Terror is illustrated with 270 colour and black and white photographs, many from private collections and not seen before, and including 25 colour artworks. For any student of modern military history and elite fighting formations, this comprehensive work is bound to fascinate. The book is the definitive account of Nazi Germany's most notorious organization, and its important role in the Third Reich.
You know about MI5. You know about MI6.
In the second half of 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed. It was an
event of major historic and global dimensions, yet this strategic
transformation of international relations took the entire world
totally by suprise - despite the fact that the West saw in the
Communist power an ideological foe and a major military
threat.
Discover the stories of the brave men and women who worked, trained and fought across the UK, from Bletchley Park in southern England all the way to Arisaig in northern Scotland, in an unbelievable effort to defeat the Nazis and win the Second World War . From the outset of the war, most of Britain felt like a mystery even to those who lived there. All road and railway signs were removed up and down the country to thwart potential enemy spies. An invisible web of cunning spread across the United Kingdom; secret laboratories were hidden in marshes, underground bases were built to conceal key strategic plans and grand country houses became secret and silent locations for eccentric boffins to do their confidential cryptography work. In Secret Britain, Sinclair McKay maps out the UK through the hidden bases and battlegrounds of WWII. These locations are full of history and intrigue, but if you don't know where to look, you might just miss them. Journeying through secret wildernesses, suburbs, underground tunnels and manor houses, Sinclair gives a glimpse into the stories of the incredible people behind the war effort, and shows how you might be able to visit these mysterious and evocative locations yourself. With his trademark warmth and compassion, Sinclair unearths the truths of the war that have remained under layers of secrecy since the war was won in 1945.
This volume investigates the connection between intelligence history, domestic policy, military history and foreign relations in a time of increasing bureaucratization of the modern state. The issues of globalization of foreign relations and the development of modern, electronic means of communication are also discussed.
Decisions about defence and security are becoming increasingly open to public influence. This book therefore aims to give both the voter and the decision maker a new vision of how to manage crises and avert hostilities with non-traditional means.
Intelligence was a central element of the Cold War and the need for
it was expected to diminish after the USSR's collapse, yet in
recent years it has been in greater demand than ever. The
atrocities of 11 September and the subsequent "war on terrorism"
now call for an even more intensive effort. Important questions
arise on how intelligence fits into the world of increased threats,
globalization and expanded international action. This volume
contains the recent work on this subject by Michael Herman, British
intelligence professional for 35 years and Oxford University
academic. It compares intelligence with other government
information services, and discusses the British intelligence system
and the case for its reform. It also addresses the ethical issues
raised by intelligence's methods and results: "do they on balance
make for a better world or a worse one?." Other chapters explore a
wide range of intelligence topics past and present, including the
transatlantic relationship, the alliance strategies of Norway and
New Zealand, Mrs Thatcher's "de-unionization" of British Sigint,
and personal memories of the British Cabinet Office in the
1970s.
From the 1930's to the 1950's a significant number of left-wing men
and women in the United States, Britain, Europe, Australia and
Canada were recruited to the Soviet intellgence services.
Contrary to popular misconceptions and public branding as "dirty tricks," covert action and counterintelligence can have considerable value. Democracies, while wary of these instruments, have benefited significantly from their use, saving lives, treasure, and gaining strategic advantage. As liberal democracies confront the post-Cold War mix of rogue states and non-state actors, such as criminals and terrorists, and weapons of mass destruction and mass disruption, these clandestine arts may prove to be important tools of statecraft, and perhaps trump cards in the twenty-first century. Godson defines covert action as influencing events in other parts of the world without attribution, and counterintelligence as identifying, neutralizing, and exploiting the secret activities of others. Together they provide the capability to resist manipulation and control others to advantage. Counterintelligence protects U.S. military, technological, and diplomatic secrets and turns adversary intelligence to U.S. advantage. Covert action enables the United States to weaken adversaries and to assist allies who may be hampered by open acknowledgment of foreign support. Drawing on contemporary and historical literature, broad-ranging contacts with senior intelligence officials in many countries, as well as his own research and experience as a longtime consultant to the U.S. government, Godson traces the history of U.S. covert action and counterintelligence since 1945, showing that covert action works well when it is part of a well-coordinated policy and when policy makers are committed to succeeding in the long-term. Godson argues that the best counterintelligence is an offensive defense. His exposition of the essential theoretical foundations of both covert action and counterintelligence, supported by historical examples, lays out the ideal conditions for their use, as well as demonstrating why they are so difficult to attain. This book will be of interest to students and general readers interested in political science, national security, foreign policy, and military policy.
This work considers, for the first time, the intelligence relationship between three important North Atlantic powers in the Twenty-first century, from WWII to post-Cold War. As demonstrated in the case studies in this volume, World War II cemented loose and often informal inter-allied agreements on security intelligence that had preceded it, and created new and important areas of close and formal co-operation in such areas as codebreaking and foreign intelligence.
Asia represented the "hottest" theatre of the Cold War, with several declared and undeclared wars always in progress. Examining the Asian dimension of this struggle, this volume describes and analyzes a range of clandestine activities from intelligence and propaganda to special operations and security support. It draws on documents declassified after the end of the Cold War.
This is a history of the Norwegian Intelligence Service (NIS) during the Cold War, based on its secret archives. The author presents detailed descriptions of the build-up of a network of Norwegian signals intelligence stations in the north; border crossings by clandestine agents; the reporting of Norwegian merchant mariners from ports behind the Iron Curtain; the intimate co-operation between the NIS and the secret services of the United States and other countries; as well as the establishment of a stay behind network.
Shortly after the end of the First World War, General Sir George Macdonagh, wartime director of British Military Intelligence, revealed that Lord Allenby's victory in Palestine had never been in doubt because of the success of his intelligence service. Seventy-five years later this book explains Macdonagh's statement. Sheffy also adopts a novel approach to traditional heroes of the campaign such as T E Lawrence.
Little attention has been paid to the murky, ultra-business of gathering intelligence among and forming estimates about friendly powers, and friendly or allied military forces. How rarely have scholars troubled to discover when states entered into coalitions or alliances mainly and explicitly because their intelligence evaluation of the potential partner concluded that making the alliance was, from the originator's national security interest, the best game in town. The twentieth century has been chosen to enhance the coherence of and connections between, the subject matter of this under-explored part of intelligence studies.
Little attention has been paid to the murky, ultra-business of gathering intelligence among and forming estimates about friendly powers, and friendly or allied military forces. How rarely have scholars troubled to discover when states entered into coalitions or alliances mainly and explicitly because their intelligence evaluation of the potential partner concluded that making the alliance was, from the originator's national security interest, the best game in town. The twentieth century has been chosen to enhance the coherence of and connections between, the subject matter of this under-explored part of intelligence studies.
The World Factbook, produced annually by the CIA, has become the ultimate, authoritative source of information on all the nations of the world. It provides current data for more than 250 countries and territories, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. Potomac Books publishes a commercial version of The World Factbook in order to extend the limited audience reached by the CIA's own publication. This current Potomac Books edition is identified by the year 2010, following the pattern used in our other annual publications, since the CIA completed its volume late the preceding year. Topics addressed include the political climate, natural resources, environment, population, ethnic groups, GDP, agriculture, industries, defense expenditures, literacy rate, religion, legal system, and much more. Key data are grouped under the headings of geography, people, government, economy, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues. The World Factbook also contains maps of each country and of key territories. In addition, readers will find handy appendixes on international organizations and groups, international environmental agreements, and a cross-referenced list of geographic names. The World Factbook is a must for curious individuals concerned about a rapidly changing world.
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