Intelligence in War

Contemporary Review, June, 2004

Intelligence in War: Knowledge of the Enemy from Napoleon to Al-Qaeda. John Keegan. Hutchinson. [pounds sterling]25.00. xix 443 pages. ISBN 0-09-180229-6. During the Boer War the then Secretary of State for War stood up in the Commons and said that 'His Majesty's Government has had some intelligence from the War Office'.

He was interrupted by a wag who chirped 'And about time too'. In this book Sir John Keegan tries to answer one question: 'How useful is intelligence in war?' To answer this he has assembled a 'collection of case studies' through which runs his view that 'intelligence in war, however good, does not point out unerringly the path to victory'. Victory remains 'an elusive prize, bought with blood rather than brains. Intelligence is the handmaiden not the mistress of the warrior'. After a general introduction ('Knowledge of the Enemy') the author looks at the wars with Napoleon, Stonewall Jackson's campaign in the Shenandoah Valley, the problems of communicating intelligence, the limits of intelligence in helping fighting men (as seen in the Battle for Crete), the Battle of Midway and the relationship between intelligence and secret weapons in World War II. In his Epilogue he looks at military intelligence since 1945 and in his Conclusion he gives a rather disparaging view of the value of intelligence and subversion (whether SOE or the CIA) and argues that 'intelligence, however good, is not necessarily the means to victory; that, ultimately, it is force, not fraud or forethought, that counts'.