Global Intelligence: The World's Secret Services Today

by Paul Todd, Jonathan Bloch

The CIA, the KGB, MI5, Mossad, Boss, Savak, Dina - the names read like a rollcall of the seamier side of history in the years following the Second World War. Today the Cold War is dead; there are fewer dictatorships; and 9/11 has created a whole new raison d'etre for covert action.

This book explains how the war on terrorism provides a wholly new context for the murky world secret services and intelligence agencies operate in, and describes in detail how ultra-modern new technologies have vastly increased their power to spy abroad and eavesdrop at home.

This up-to-date account raises important issues, including the new roles the secret services have found for themselves as they target 'rogue states', 'the war on drugs', and 'terrorists'. Most important of all, its authors explore the unsolved contradiction between the world of these secretive and unaccountable agencies operating on the fringes of the law, and the requirements of a free and democratic society. There is, they conclude, 'no easy walk to freedom'.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Luis Lopes · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a Great Book, but it's got "expesnsive" words, some I can't understand, forcing me to reread some parts to try and gess that the Author's Talking about...!! But Loving the Book....!!

[ValeriZentsov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good value.

Paul Todd's "Global Intelligence" is a relatively up to date (post-9/11) account of modern intelligence. The book considers the impact of 9/11 on the global intelligence scene, and gives a well footnoted and informative overview of some of the new technology available to intelligence agencies, before moving onto an assessment and contrasting of US intelligence, UK intelligence, other EU intelligence, Russian intelligence, Israeli intelligence, and a chapter giving a briefer overview of other international players. The book then outlines some conclusions which you may or may not agree with, but which are again very information-heavy and well footnoted.

Good value, informative, apparently reliable, and with a few gems in the footnotes to springboard on to further study if you wish.

[Tommy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brief post-9/11 look at the state of various intelligence agencies: American, UK, French, EU, Russian, Israeli, Iraqi, Syrian, Pakistani, South African, Burmese. Mostly about spookery and data from the 90s. Post-Snowden there's more information out there on technical methods being used.