Like secret intelligence itself, the history of secret intelligence is elusive, for unknowns abound regarding the reliability and completeness of sources, and the motivations behind their release, which are often the product of ongoing propaganda efforts as well as competition among agencies. Indeed, these difficulties lead to the challenge of both overestimating and underestimating the importance of secret intelligence for foreign policy and statecraft. In recent decades, however, traditional perspectives have shifted ground and judgments can be revised in light of new evidence. This volume b ... More

Like secret intelligence itself, the history of secret intelligence is elusive, for unknowns abound regarding the reliability and completeness of sources, and the motivations behind their release, which are often the product of ongoing propaganda efforts as well as competition among agencies. Indeed, these difficulties lead to the challenge of both overestimating and underestimating the importance of secret intelligence for foreign policy and statecraft. In recent decades, however, traditional perspectives have shifted ground and judgments can be revised in light of new evidence. This volume brings together a collection of essays that avoid the traditional pitfalls, while carrying out the essential task of analyzing the recent evidence concerning the history of the European states system of the last century. The essays offer an array of insight across countries and across time. Together they highlight the critical importance of the prevailing domestic circumstances—technological, governmental, ideological, cultural, financial—in which intelligence operates. A keen interdisciplinary eye focused on these developments leaves us with a far more complete understanding of secret intelligence in Europe than we have ever had before.