Behind the Scenes

The idea that real espionage differs from the version we see onscreen and in thriller novels is unexceptional, but the idea that "intelligence" is more than spying isn't as widely understood, believes historian Christopher Andrew. His 2018 The Secret World is an exploration of that idea as it has developed through history in different settings.

Although the idea of covertly observing an enemy's forces probably dates back to the first time groups of armed combatants faced off against each other, Andrew notes that one of its earliest mentions is from the Book of Exodus in the Bible, as far back as 1500 BC. From there he explores how that kind of spying began to include more detailed information, such as battle plans, resources available, or even how willing an enemy force's soldiers were to fight. It also expanded into the idea of counter-intelligence, which is more than just trying to thwart the enemy's spying. It can include, for example, planting false information about one's own situation, perhaps to tempt unwise enemies to attack at the wrong time or to persuade them not to attack at all. As Andrew moves into more modern eras he shows how the development of codes and cryptography expanded the ability of spies to communicate greater amounts of information as well as keep that information out of the wrong hands.

It seems odd to say about a 760-age book with nearly 60 pages of bibliography and 130 pages of notes, but The Secret World seems incomplete or at best unfocused. In its first third or so Andrew outlines how the ideas of intelligence grew from pure espionage to contain a wide range of information and activity. He explores the way many non-Western cultures contributed to this development, in many cases much earlier the Greeks and Romans more familiar to us. And he highlights how intelligence use often varied from leader to leader rather than existing as a permanent feature of military and diplomatic work. A general who saw its value would develop networks of information gathering and communication that would be abandoned by his successor who didn't think the same way. But the remaining two-thirds of the book focuses on intelligence in its Western and European contexts, except during the chapters covering much of the previously-examined history of intelligence during the World Wars.

Andrew does examine intelligence during the Cold War, although as he nears the modern era the secrecy of the work begins to keep him from digging as deeply into the record as he can do in earlier eras. He also touches on the post Cold-War era but spends a lot of that section pointing out failures of the Clinton and Bush administrations to see the 9/11 attacks coming. Those conclusions aren't necessarily wrong, but they seem out of place in a book meant to explore how intelligence as a concept and a discipline evolved.

The Secret World would probably benefit if it were split into two or more books. One could explain how the modern concept of "intelligence" developed around the world with some exploration of that development in history. The other could explore some major world conflicts and how just how many things besides pure espionage contribute to intelligence and how that reality shaped them. It could touch on the well-traveled fields of the Napoleonic wars and the 20th century world wars but also examine conflicts during China's Warring States period, the series of wars that created feudal Japan or India's Tripartite Struggle of the 800s.

The Secret World clearly represents a massive amount of work and time dedicated to the project by Christopher Andrew. It belongs on the shelf of anyone interested in the history of intelligence and intelligence-gathering, but the weaknesses mentioned above means it'll work best with some companions.