Surprise Attack: The Victim's Perspective, with a New Preface

This is a very systematic, thorough, and balanced discussion of the problems of recognizing a surprise attack before it happens. The material is well-organized and very logically presented. The writing is clear but compact and definitely requires the reader's concentration. However, the information and perspective to be gained from reading the book are worth the effort. This book should be read by every student of intelligence assessments and by every Pearl Harbor "buff".

Kam's book is the definative work on strategic surprise. Using historical examples (focusing on the incidents of strategic in the twentieth century, and yes, he gets them all) with qualitative and quantitative analysis of all the incidents, Kam clearly illustrates the causes and effects of strategic surprise. Each cause of surprise is clearly illustrated with historical example, usually multiple examples. The set of causes for surprise that Kam developed is comprehensive and provides an excellent starting point for serious consideration of how to develop indications and warnings against future surprise attacks. This book also provides a thorough framework for dissecting surprise attacks not covered in the text. It is a bit dry and pedantic, but the material is so relevant to world events and his case is so clearly made that this shortcoming can be overlooked. This one is a "must read" for any serious student of national security, and political or military science.

This is the best book I've seen on the failures of intelligence and operational planing. Kam goes into equisit detail about the psychological factors relating to suprise attack. His unique prespective from that of the victim lends credibility to his arguments and provides an excellent forum for truly learning the lessons needed to be learned in avoiding strategic surprise in the future.