Silent Warfare: Understanding the World of Intelligence

One of the challenges of teaching Intelligence is getting the student, and the general reader, past the stereotypes, mythology and conspiracy theories to the basics of the world of Intelligence. "Silent Warfare", by Abram Shulsky and Gary Schmitt, does that in under two hundred clearly written pages, plus extensive endnotes. This third edition was published in 2002, as the US conflict with militant Islamic terrorism was turning into a sustained campaign. "Silent Warfare" has however avoided the difficulties of chasing current events by focusing on the theoretical basis of the Intelligence business. The authors start with a definition of intelligence, then describe its basic process--the collection of information and the production, through analysis, of intelligence. They gamely tackle the controversial subjects of covert action and counterintelligence. They include a thoughtful discussion of the proper management of the intelligence community. The authors' peneultimate chapter describes a uniquely American view of intelligence and the moral issues associated with it. Their concluding chapter lays out a theory of intelligence that may be a useful organizing construct for the student. The great strength of this book is its commonsense, non-sensational approach. The authors use simple language and lots of historical examples to illustrate their points. The emphasis placed on the value, when properly utilized, of open source information and information technology is noteworthy. If in places it oversimplifies a complex business, it does so to keep the topic within the view of the reader. "Silent Warfare" is very highly recommended as an introductory textbook to the study of Intelligence.

Authors Abram Shulsky and Gary Schmitt have written a excellent book on the world of intelligence. Areas covered---covert action,counterintelligence,double agents,propaganda and much more. You'll learn what official and nonofficial cover means,tradecraft,counterespionage and different ways our government collects intelligence. There may be other books on this subject, but for me it was a good place to start to learn about the world of intelligence. Easy to read and plenty of examples. Well done.

Both the authors, Abram Shulsky and Gary Schmitt, are respected intelligence organization professionals who have taken up university-level teaching and writing. The book is focused on intelligence theory and organization - not on tradecraft. As such, the principal audience of this book would likely be future intelligence policymakers or foreign intelligence organizations trying to gain an insight into US intelligence systems. The book does a solid job of identifying what intelligence is, how it is collected (humint vs. techint), how it is processed, how it is systematically protected, and what counter-intelligence includes. In addition, it addresses the gray areas of covert action (Is it intelligence or military activity?) and plausible denial. Although much of this discussion could apply to most nations' intelligence bureaus, the authors only explicity describe the American intelligence system. Perhaps the most outstanding feature of the book is the wealth of sources it contains. Many of these are freely and immediately available on the web for all to read. All the footnotes are very thoroughly explained and usually refer to a specific source. The source list itself adds tremendous value to the book by guiding the reader to so many numerous definitive works on intelligence operations. All in all, this is a solid introduction to intelligence and a great book for pursuing its addition sources.

A very good overview of Intelligence, including Intelligence Collection (spying via humint [spies on the ground, or human intel. collection] and techint (technical intelligence collection [satellites, signals intercepts, etc.]; Analysis; Covert [Clandestine] Operations; Counterintelligence; etc. My only criticism of this book is that it does not cover Interrogation. Interrogation is not a major area of Intelligence, as, say, Analysis is or Counterintelligence is, but it is integral subpart of both Intelligence Collection and Counterintelligence. But, other than that, the book is a must for anyone who wants to get a good overview of intelligence.

This book is amazeing!!!! I love it I have read in three times!!!!