Intelligence in War: Knowledge of the Enemy from Napoleaon to Al-Queda - Hardcover

Keegan, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0375400532 ISBN 13: 9780375400537

Publisher: Alfred a Knopf Inc, 2003

Synopsis

A study on the influence of intelligence on war operations examines a series of historical wartime events to delineate the strategies and outcomes of each while linking the function of their intelligence operations, refuting perceptions that intelligence superiority is a key to war success. 125,000 first printing.

About this title

About the Author

John Keegan’s books include The First World War, The Battle for History, The Face of Battle, War and Our World, The Mask of Command, Fields of Battle and A History of Warfare. He is the defense editor of The Daily Telegraph (London). He lives in Wiltshire, England.

From the Inside Flap

In fiction, the spy is a glamorous figure whose secrets make or break peace, but, historically, has intelligence really been a vital step to military victories? In this breakthrough study, the preeminent war historian John Keegan goes to the heart of a series of important conflicts to develop a powerful argument about military intelligence.

In his characteristically wry and perceptive prose, Keegan offers us nothing short of a new history of war through the prism of intelligence. He brings to life the split-second decisions that went into waging war before the benefit of aerial surveillance and electronic communications. The English admiral Horatio Nelson was hot on the heels of Napoleon s fleet in the Mediterranean and never knew it, while Stonewall Jackson was able to compensate for the Confederacy s disadvantage in firearms and manpower with detailed maps of the Appalachians. In the past century, espionage and decryption have changed the face of battle: the Japanese surprise attack at the Battle of the Midway was thwarted by an early warning. Timely information, however, is only the beginning of the surprising and disturbing aspects of decisions that are made in war, where brute force is often more critical.

Intelligence in War is a thought-provoking work that ranks among John Keegan s finest achievements.

Edition details

• Publisher: Alfred a Knopf Inc
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0375400532
• ISBN 13: 9780375400537
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 387