Intelligence in War: Knowledge of the Enemy from Napoleon to Al-Qaeda | 
 enlarge | Author: John Keegan
Publisher: Knopf
Category: Book
List Price: $30.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  47 reviews
Sales Rank: 70643
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 387
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.7
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.3
ISBN: 0375400532
Dewey Decimal Number: 355.3432
EAN: 9780375400537
ASIN: 0375400532
Publication Date: October 28, 2003
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Condition: Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. 100% Money Back Guarantee. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy!
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Product Description
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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 42 more reviews...
 Not a proper explanation of the subject August 29, 2008
Firstly, I expected the author adduce arguments favoring " Intelligence in War'. Instead I was in for a shock. as the tenor of the book is mostly negative.According to Keegan, Intelligence becomes secondary when it comes to actual fighting. War is a clash of wills It is also a test of courage ,endurance where nation with superior fighting skill will prevail over its enemy.Intelligence of your enemy can mitigate the scale of fighting making it less violent and strenous.
Case Histories given in this book: Atlantic campaign, Crete, German Kreuzer Krieg, Midway make an interesting reading. The chapter on Midway
undoubtedly the best portion of the book.Here Keegan casts whole new light on great campaign.Sometimes 'chance' ,shrewd guess work decide
the outcome of a campaign.Carrrier battle at Midway being the perfect manifestation of the phenomenon. However an important point which this book overlooks is Intelligence is crucial in decision-making prelude to outbreak of hostilities. Violence seldom pays if your opponent is exceedingly strong. Intelligence compares your capabilities relative to your opponent. It helps you take sane decisions lest your thinking is not warped by conceit ,overconfidence. "Know your enemy and know yourself
and you can win hundred battles without defeat" wrote great Chinese military theoretician Sun Tzu in 2 nd century BC.This wisdom is relevant even to this day.Those who violated this cardinal principle have paid a heavy price.
Take the case of Operation Market Garden Sep 17,1944 ,the biggest airborne landing in the history of war. Enigma decrypts revealed the presence of crack SS panzer divisions resting in Arnhem area was ignored by General Montgomery. British paradivision landed into the teeth of German defences and were mauled. Nazi invasion of Soviet Russia is another example. German commanders thought they could conquer Bolshevik state in span a of six weeks. Here good Intelligence would have uncovered the strength that lay dormant in Red Army disabusing German notion of a quick victory .As a result, despite making spectacular advances, Wehrmacht broke down on the approaches to Moscow.
In concluding portion of the book , author makes a false analogy of Poland prelude to German invasion .Even Poland accurate knowledge of German intentions failed to save the country from destruction. Let me say this, Poland was ruled by a corrupt military oligarchy who were devoid of common sense. It was asinineWarsaw's part to challenge militarily powerful neighbour. Among Hitler's demands , those with regard to Poland appeared reasonable,genuine.Poland possibly would have patched up her territorial dispute if not for British intervention. London gave security guarantee which had no meaning as no assistance to Poles was possible
without Russian participation.Russian participation was ruled out because British gentlemen-politicians disdained Bolsheviks. Fatuous security guarantee made Polish ruling military clique more obstinate inviting destruction.
To conclude, I deign Keegan's book a valuable addition to growing literature on Military Science. But polemical in content.
 Translating Intelligence into Victory, or Not..... February 27, 2008
John Keegan's 2003 "Intelligence in War" is a well-written, if limited, survey of several battle and campaigns to determine what if any impact intelligence had on their outcome. Keegan cites Admiral Lord Nelson's pursuit of Napoleon's fleet, Stonewall Jackson's famous Valley campaign, and the World War II battles of Crete, Midway, and the North Atlantic, among others. His concluding argument seems to be that the availability of good intelligence in and of itself does not determine the outcome of conflict as much as the ability of warriors to turn intelligence into some decisive advantage on the battlefield. As Keegan notes, the outcome of battle may be as much dependent on sheer chance as anything else.
Keegan's book sparked some vigorously dissenting opinions on the value of his argument, as can be seen in other reviews. It has been noted before that Keegan's undoubted powers of description are sometimes stronger than his ability to interpret their meaning. To the extent that Keegan breaks no new intellectual ground in this book, those dissenting opinions are perfectly valid. The effect of "Intelligence in War" to strip away some of the mystique of intelligence in war is likely of value for the general reader, as opposed to the dedicated student of conflict or intelligence. His selected examples place intelligence firmly in context in the chaos that accompanies battle. His point, that intelligence can facilitate success but does not mandate it, may be far less obvious to the general reader than to the dedicated student.
Keegan's prose, as always, is imminently readable. His accounts of the Battle of the North Atlantic and of Crete, including his analysis of the outcomes, are superbly concise, with much nuance. Keegan includes an excellent selection of maps and photographs.
This book is recommended to the general reader looking for a entertaining discussion of just how intelligence can fit into the bigger picture in conflict. Dedicated students of intelligence in warfare will find more challenging fare elsewhere.
 Spys in War November 15, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Sir John Keegan, the defense editor for "The Daily Telegraph" and one of the foremost military historians writing in English today, has turned his attention to an important but regularly overlooked topic--the role of military intelligence in combat operations. He argues that political intelligence is an ancient craft that goes back almost as far as recorded history, but military intelligence has until the last 200 hundred years or so had limited impact on the battlefield due to the technological challenges of getting information to a commander and then to units in the field. Intelligence was mainly the work of scouts.
In a series of case studies starting with the naval operations of Lord Nelson, Keegan argues: "Intelligence, however good, is not necessarily the means to victory; that ultimately, it is force, not fraud or forethought, that counts" (p. 334). Two of the most striking examples he uses are the battles of Crete in 1940 and Midway in 1942. At Crete, the British had accurate signals intelligence telling them what the Germans were going to do and they still lost. At Midway, the Americans had equally good information on what the Japanese intended, but random chance was the key to U.S. victory. The American planes that sank three of the four Japanese carriers were lost and found the enemy fleet by accident at a time when their defenses were ill prepared for another attack.
These arguments are important. We use this book at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College where I currently teach. Keegan's ideas are revisionist but also seem straight forward. The title is accurate. This book focuses only on military intelligence in war. The subtitle is a bit misleading. There is next to no mention of al-Qaeda in the book. Keegan is an exceptionally easy read, but he raises some significant questions which is always a good combination.
Keegan's newest October 15, 2007
John Keegan has been writing books like this for years now, and he's built a reputation as the foremost historian in the world at the current time. He tends, for the most part, to write thematic history, rather than narratives, and they tend to have a point rather than recount a series of events. The current book is a study of the uses of intelligence in warfare. Keegan's typical style is to recount a series of episodes, using them to illustrate the various aspects of the subject he's discussing. In this instance he starts with Nelson's epic search for the French fleet in the Med during the 1798 campaign that led to the Battle of the Nile.
From there he works through Jackson in the Valley, Spee in the Pacific at the start of World War I, and then a group of episodes from the Second World War. The episodes work to build Keegan's central thesis, which is that while intelligence is important in warfare, it's not *the* central important feature of warfare that some think it. At times, firepower, overwhelming combat power, even tactical prowess, can cancel superior intelligence, even completely overwhelm it.
Keegan is one of those writers who tries things, not always successfully. Failure or success, he tries interesting things. In this instance, his attempt is mostly successful, more than in the History of Warfare, for instance. His whole point, which I stated above, is well-made, and the episodes he recounts reinforce the central thesis of the book. I enjoyed this book. Frankly I wouldn't recommend it for those who aren't specialists, but I would recommend it for those who are interested in military history or the current struggles with Al Qaeda.
 Some Interesting Thoughts, Some Errors October 11, 2007
John Keegan herein presents six case studies of the effect of intelligence on war, and makes the very good point that intelligence is unable to accomplish anything unless linked to sufficient, well-used force.
This is all very good, but I have to caution potential buyers: I know enough to partially evaluate one chapter, number five on Crete and Enigma. In it, Keegan displays such complete misunderstanding of cryptography that literally nothing he says on the subject can be trusted (he thinks the Caesar cipher, the world's simplest substitution system, is a transposition!). This leaves me wondering if the information I can't evaluate is similarly wrong.
Worth reading, but probably not worth buying new.
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