Silent Warfare: Understanding the World of Inteligence

Silent Warfare has its origin in a course on intelligence that Mr. Shusky taught in `1985 as a visiting professor at the University of Chicago’s John M. Olin Center for Inquiry into the Theory and Practice of democracy. The book was never intended to be an account of a particular country’s intelligence activities in a particular period in history. While many of the examples found in the book are drawn from the British and American intelligence experiences, they are generally employed to make broader points about basic concepts and issues involved in the practice of intelligence of a new strategic era, and the rise of the “information age” will, of course, change intelligence practices and requirements to some degree. However, a key thesis of the book is that intelligence in inherently connected to the competition among nations and that absent something akin to Kant’s state of “Perpetual peace,” intelligence will, like diplomacy and military force, remain a regular tool for the citizen and serious student to understand the developments in the craft of intelligence, their interactions, and the tensions and relationships between these secret activities and the democratic government and society they are intended to serve.