Clandestine Lives Of Colonel David Smiley

Drawing on extensive interviews and archival research, this biography uncovers the motivations and ideals that informed Smiley's commitment to covert action and intelligence during the Second World War and early part of the Cold War, often among tribally based societies. With particular reference to operations in Albania, Oman and Yemen, it addresses the wider issues of accountability and control of clandestine operations.

The final instalment of Colonel David Smiley's fascinating autobiographical trilogy. This book fills the gaps that were left by his two previous memoirs, uncovering his service in World War Two before and after being parachuted into Albania as well his thoughts on the conflicts that he was involved in through the twentieth century. Colonel David Smiley was no ordinary soldier. Through the course of his life he saw conflict in the Balkans, Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. After being commissioned into the Household Cavalry in 1936 and seeing action in the Middle East, he subsequently trained and fought with the Commandos, was recruited into Churchill's Special Operations Executive, co-operated with MI6 and the SAS, and provided aid to resistance movements across the globe. Even his service within the regular army was never ordinary; he was frequently the first to be called upon by superiors to lead dangerous missions in Syria and Persia and later served in lightly-armoured dummy tanks in the Western Desert facing German Stukas and powerful Axis tanks. From Syria to Thailand, Smiley's bravery, abilities in clandestine warfare, and leadership unified the men he led and caused havoc to enemy forces. His autobiography, which covers from his entrance into the military before the Second World War to his return to Albania in 1992 after the fall of Communist rule, records a remarkable life spent fighting in regular forces as well as in cloak-and-dagger operations and demonstrates how varied conflict was during the twentieth century. "Smiley's latest book completes a trilogy of memoirs of times of war and troubled peace and provides setting for his previous books Arabian Assignment and Albanian Assignment." The RUSI Journal

This book traces the dynamics in the current fraught relationship between Israel and the Palestinians to the dramatic events of March 2002—from a suicide bombing to the Arab Peace Initiative to the invasion and reoccupation of the West Bank, where Israeli soldiers won a bloody military battle but Israel lost the media battle of public opinion.

Since its creation in 1947, the CIA has been at the heart of America's security apparatus. Written by intelligence scholars and experts, The CIA and the Pursuit of Security offers the reader a lively survey of the CIA past and present. The history of the agency is presented through the prism of its declassified documents, with each being supplemented by insightful contextual analysis. The book chronicles the evolution of the CIA, its remarkable successes, clandestine operations, and its ongoing struggle to maintain American security in an age of proliferating threats.

Tests whether the analysis of competing hypotheses reduces cognitive bias, and proposes a more effective approachReveals that a key element of current training provided to the UK and US intelligence communities (and likely all 5-EYES and several European agencies) does not have a proven ability to mitigate cognitive biasesDemonstrates that judging the credibility of information from human sources means that intelligence analysis faces greater complexity and cognitive strain than non-intelligence analysisExplains the underlying causes cognitive biases, based on meta-analyses of existing researchShows that identifying the ideal conditions for intelligence analysis is a more effective way of reducing the risk of cognitive bias than the use of ACHRecent high-profile intelligence failures - from 9/11 to the 2003 Iraq war - prove that cognitive bias in intelligence analysis can have catastrophic consequences. This book critiques the reliance of Western intelligence agencies on the use of a method for intelligence analysis developed by the CIA in the 1990s, the Analysis of Competing Hypotheses (ACH). The author puts ACH to the test in an experimental setting against two key cognitive biases with unique empirical research facilitated by UK's Professional Heads of Intelligence Analysis unit at the Cabinet Office, and finds that the theoretical basis of the ACH method is significantly flawed. Combining the insight of a practitioner with over 11 years of experience in intelligence with both philosophical theory and experimental research, the author proposes an alternative approach to mitigating cognitive bias that focuses on creating the optimum environment for analysis, challenging current leading theories.

In the 21st century, more than any other time, US agencies have relied on contractors to conduct core intelligence functions. This book charts the swell of intelligence outsourcing in the context of American political culture and considers what this means for the relationship between the state, its national security apparatus and accountability within a liberal democracy. Through analysis of a series of case studies, recently declassified documents and exclusive interviews with national security experts in the public and private sectors, the book provides an in-depth and illuminating appraisal of the evolving accountability regime for intelligence contractors.