| Lancette Arts Journal Founded in 2000 |
NON-Fiction Book Reviews From our Archives |
November 2003 |
Intelligence in War - Knowledge of the Enemy from
Napoleon to Al-Qaeda by John Keegan,
Key Porter Books, hardcover, 443 pages,
$49.95
By Alidė Kohlhaas
Few of us will ever come in contact with the world of intelligence gathering. We may think we know it through the genre of the spy novel that reached its apex of popularity during the Cold War era. These stories, however, seldom picture the reality of espionage conducted for a variety of reasons on behalf of our governments. We have subconsciously covered this world of secrets, spies and double agents with a patina of glamour that must be amusing to those actually involved in this work.
Britain's foremost military historian, Sir John Keegan, has written a book, Intelligence in War - Knowledge of the Enemy from Napoleon to Al-Qaeda, which chronicles how foreknowledge had some effect on the outcome of a number of historic battles. But, he is quick to point out that knowing all about one's enemy is not necessarily a guaranty that a battle or war will be won.
This book sets out to answer a simple question: how useful is intelligence in war? is the opening sentence in the Introduction of his book. We soon learn, as he takes us through various battles, from Nelson's victory over Napoleon at Alexandria to our as yet 'unwon' battle against Al-Qaeda, that "Foreknowledge is no protection against disaster. Even real-time intelligence is never enough."
Keegan tells us without hesitation that in our present world intelligence organizations in the West are either swamped with too much information, which is difficult to interpret, or they lack the ability to infiltrate the fluid, shadowy world of . . .
In a recent interview with Keegan (click here to read) I pointed out two . . .
Read a
review of the latest book by John Keegan,
The Iraq War, published June 2004 To Read the full article, go to our
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