Exploring Intelligence Archives: Enquiries into the Secret State

This new book examines these questions and explores how various kinds of people involved in studying and/or practicing intelligence, view texts and issues from different perspectives. It shows how scholars have long sought to make use of relevant archives, but constraints on access to such sources have been considerable. With the end of the Cold War and other changes in official attitudes, more intelligence documents are now becoming available.

This is a fascinating new examination that shows how no document speaks entirely for itself, though some may be more eloquent or assertive than others. The interpretation of the archival record (as indeed the non-archival record) is at the heart of scholarship, and challenges in interpreting texts are generic problems for any researcher.

This book presents documents in the public domain that illustrate themes and issues in understanding the realm of intelligence. Some of these provide potentially important insights or information in the broader understanding of national and international security, as well as illuminating the cultural environment within which security and intelligence services operate.

No document speaks entirely for itself, though some may be more eloquent or assertive than others. The interpretation of the archival record (as indeed the non-archival record) is at the heart of scholarship, and challenges in interpreting texts are generic problems for any researcher. One question is whether the nature of intelligence poses specific challenges for the historian. If deception, deceit and manipulation are integral to the business of intelligence gathering - what are the implications for the historical record? Are indeed intelligence archives themselves officially constructed to allow only manipulated histories? This book examines these questions and explores how various kinds of people involved in studying and/or practicing intelligence, view texts and issues from different perspectives.

The book presents a series of documents, nearly all of which are published here for the first time, accompanied by both overview and commentary sections. The central objectives of this collection are twofold. First, it seeks to build on existing scholarship on intelligence in deepening our understanding of its impact on a series of key events in the international history of the past century. Further, it aims to explore the different ways in which intelligence can be studied by bringing together both scholarly and practical expertise to examine a range of primary material relevant to the history of intelligence since the early twentieth century.

This book will be of great interest to students of intelligence, strategic and security studies, foreign policy and international history.