Description
Book SynopsisAn innovative theory of state intelligence
Trade Review'Raises a fascinating question: what if the biggest failures of intelligence are not the factual errors, but the inbuilt biases that shape what types of information is deemed useful, or even legible, to the state?'
-- Lisa Stampnitzky, Lecturer of Politics at the University of Sheffield, UK, and author of 'Disciplining Terror: How Experts Invented “Terrorism”'
'A ground-breaking contribution to the field. Elegantly written, the book decodes a plethora of declassified documents showing the racialised assumptions underlying the use and abuse of intelligence in contemporary Western politics. This is a must-read for anyone interested in democratic politics, recent armed conflicts in the Middle East or asymmetrical global power relations'
-- Dr. Elisabeth Schweiger, Lecturer, Department of Politics and International Relations, University of York, UK
'Your jaw will drop and your heart will break. We urgently need this reckoning with the role of race-thinking in international politics. Lives depend on it'
-- Gargi Bhattacharyya
'A ground-breaking analysis revealing how Western intelligence failures are not isolated incidents but symptomatic of a racialised imagination of other societies as 'ignorant, emotional, and illogical', ultimately threatening peace and maintaining inequality. Essential reading for anyone interested in how intelligence is made, (mis)used and underpins international relations'
-- Owen David Thomas, Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations, University of Exeter and founding member of the Secrecy Power and Ignorance Network (SPIN)
Table of ContentsList of figures
Acronyms and Abbreviations
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Ukraine, Iraq, and the failure of intelligence failure
1. Whispering geopolitics in a decolonising world
2. Dragons and tigers and bears, oh my: The invention of the mirror-image problem
Part Two
3. Getting to know Saddam Hussein
4. 'They buried things in the sand': The threat of Iraq and the secret of race
Conclusion: Libya, the Arab Spring, and the success of intelligence failure
Notes
Index
