Disrupt and Deny is the untold story behind Britain's secret scheming against both enemies and friends from 1945 to the present day. British leaders use spies and Special Forces to interfere in the affairs of others discreetly and deniably. Since 1945, MI6 has spread misinformation designed to divide and discredit targets from the Middle East to Eastern Europe and Northern Ireland. It has instigated whispering campaigns and planted false evidence on officials working behind the Iron Curtain, tried to foment revolution in Albania, blown up ships to prevent the passage of refugees to Israel, and secretly funnelled aid to insurgents in Afghanistan and dissidents in Poland. MI6 has launched cultural and economic warfare against Iceland and Czechoslovakia. It has tried to instigate coups in Congo, Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and elsewhere. Through bribery and blackmail, Britain has rigged elections as colonies moved to independence. Britain has fought secret wars in Yemen, Indonesia, and Oman - and discreetly used Special Forces to eliminate enemies from colonial Malaya to Libya during the Arab Spring. This is covert action: a vital, though controversial, tool of statecraft and perhaps the most sensitive of all government activity. If used wisely, it can play an important role in pursuing national interests in a dangerous world. If used poorly, it can cause political scandal - or worse. In Disrupt and Deny, Rory Cormac tells the remarkable true story of Britain's secret scheming against its enemies, as well as its friends; of intrigue and manoeuvring within the darkest corridors of Whitehall, where officials fought to maintain control of this most sensitive and seductive work; and, above all, of Britain's attempt to use smoke and mirrors to mask decline. He reveals hitherto secret operations, the slush funds that paid for them, and the battles in Whitehall that shaped them.

This eye-opening account reveals that covert intelligence operations in the U.S. date much farther back than most people realize--back to the Founding Fathers. Detailing clandestine, unscrupulous operations that took place under such presidents as Washington, Jefferson, Polk, and Lincoln, Knott reveals that presidents have rarely consulted Congress before engaging in such operations.

Describes the secret political campaign undertaken by Britain in 1939 to weaken America's isolationists, bring the U.S. into World War II, and influence American policy in England's favor. Discusses British influence in the Willkie campaign, the political destruction of isolationist Congressman Hamilton Fish, the ideological switch of Senator Vandenburg, and pro-war propaganda efforts by the New York Times, The New York Herald Tribune and Warner Brothers Studios. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Moving the debate beyond the place of tactical intelligence in counterinsurgency warfare, Confronting the Colonies considers the view from Whitehall, where the biggest decisions were made. It reveals the evolving impact of strategic intelligence upon government understandings of, and policy responses to, insurgent threats. Confronting the Colonies demonstrates for the first time how, in the decades after World War Two, the intelligence agenda expanded to include non-state actors, insurgencies, and irregular warfare. It explores the challenges these emerging threats posed to intelligence assessment and how they were met with varying degrees of success. Such issues remain of vital importance today. By examining the relationship between intelligence and policy, Cormac provides original and revealing insights into government thinking in the era of decolonisation, from the origins of nationalist unrest to the projection of dwindling British power. He demonstrates how intelligence (mis-)understood the complex relationship between the Cold War, nationalism, and decolonisation; how it fuelled fierce Whitehall feuding; and how it shaped policymakers' attempts to integrate counterinsurgency into broader strategic policy.

Volume 5 of the Official History of Intelligence in the Second World War, Strategic Deception, brings the series to an end. Strategic deception depends for its success on the availability of good security and good intelligence. The first three volumes of the series described the intelligence channels that gave the Allies their incomparable insight into enemy capabilities and intentions.

Spies of the Kaiser examines the scope and objectives of German covert operations in Great Britain before and during the First World War. It assesses the effect of German espionage on Anglo-German relations and discusses the extent to which the fear of German espionage in the United Kingdom shaped the British intelligence community in the early Twentieth-century. The study is based on original archival material, including hitherto unexploited German records and recently declassified British documents.

The first introduction to writing about intelligence and intelligence services. Secrecy has never stopped people from writing about intelligence. From memoirs and academic texts to conspiracy-laden exposes and spy novels, writing on intelligence abounds. Now, this new account uncovers intelligence historiography's hugely important role in shaping popular understandings and the social memory of intelligence. In this first introduction to these official and unofficial histories, a range of leading contributors narrate and interpret the development of intelligence studies as a discipline. Each chapter showcases new archival material, looking at a particular book or series of books and considering issues of production, censorship, representation and reception.

A “splendidly written, impeccably researched, and perfectly fascinating” look at clandestine operations from colonial times to the Cuban Missile Crisis (The Washington Post Book World). We’ve always depended on intelligence gathering to drive foreign policy in peacetime and command decision in war—but that work has often taken place in the shadows. Honorable Treachery fills in these details in our national history, dramatically recounting every important intelligence operation from our nation’s birth into the early 1960s. Among numerous other stories, the book recounts how in 1795, President Washington mounted a covert operation to ransom American hostages in the Middle East; how in 1897, Kaiser Wilhelm II’s plans for an invasion of the United States were stopped by the director of the US Office of Naval Intelligence; and how President Woodrow Wilson created a secret agency called the Inquiry to compile intelligence for the peace negotiations at the end of World War I. From a Pulitzer Prize finalist who himself worked for the CIA, Honorable Treachery puts America’s use of covert intelligence into a broader historical context, providing a unique insight into the secret workings of our country. “O’Toole offers fascinating information generally unrecorded in traditional diplomatic and military histories.” —Library Journal