Perspectives on Military Intelligence from the First World War to Mali

Many intelligence practitioners feel that the statutory footing on which intelligenceagencies have been placed forms an impediment to confronting unprecedented contemporarychallenges. On the basis of case studies spanning the period from the First WorldWar to the present, this book argues that while the intelligence community in the era ofglobalization has indeed come to face new and complex challenges that require adaptation,operating in demanding and changing environments is not new at all. This book questionsthe conventional wisdom of 9/11 or the end of the Cold War as caesurae. It also argues thatthe ability to adapt, innovate, question and learn from past experience is crucial for thesuccess of intelligence organizations, rather than ever-expanding funding.
Agencies’ ability to reflect, adapt and learn from experience determines their subsequentcapability to deliver. One key development resulting from globalization is the markedincrease in cooperation between intelligence agencies of different countries on the onehand, and between investigative agencies and intelligence agencies on the other. This hasled to concerns over human rights and privacy and to increased calls for accountability andimproved oversight as the increase in cooperation between organizations operating globallyalso provides scope for the circumvention of domestic restrictions.
This book proposes an instrument to assess the effectiveness of existing accountabilityarrangements and offers new insights into the role of (military) intelligence in anumber of crises, e.g., the 1962 Cold War confrontation over Western New Guinea, and thefunctioning of intelligence in peacekeeping operations ranging from Srebrenica to Mali.
Thematically comprehensive, it offers a mixture of historical, legal, operational, and policyaspects, analyzed through the lens of institutional learning, bringing together academic andpractitioners’ perspectives. The focus lies not only on the familiar Anglo-Saxon experiencebut also on cases from India, the Netherlands, South East Asia, Bosnia, Lebanon, and Mali.
The book is aimed at both scholars and practitioners studying and/or working in the fieldof civil and military intelligence, and those involved in international relations and internationalhumanitarian law/human rights law. It brings together contributions from authorswho spoke at the Conference to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Dutch MilitaryIntelligence and Security Service, organized by the Netherlands Intelligence Studies Association(NISA), and from a number of authors who were specifically invited to participate.