Challenges in Intelligence Analysis
Lessons from 1300 BCE to the Present

In Challenges in Intelligence Analysis, first published in 2010, Timothy Walton offers concrete, reality-based ways to improve intelligence analysis.

Timothy Walton (Author)

9780521132657, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 30 August 2010

310 pages, 8 b/w illus. 15 maps
23.1 x 15.5 x 1.8 cm, 0.43 kg

“Timothy Walton offers in these pages a readable and reliable survey of secret intelligence operations, from Biblical times through the contemporary efforts of the Western nations to thwart global terrorist activities perpetrated by Al Qaeda and its allies. The work is a rich mosaic of espionage down through the years, filled with images of shadowy figures and dazzling spy machines.”
– Loch K. Johnson, University of Georgia

In Challenges in Intelligence Analysis, Timothy Walton offers concrete, reality-based ways to improve intelligence analysis. After a brief introduction to the main concepts of analysis, he provides more than forty historical and contemporary examples that demonstrate what has, and what has not, been effective when grappling with difficult problems. The examples cover a wide span of time, going back 3,000 years. They are also global in scope and deal with a variety of political, military, economic, and social issues. Walton emphasizes the importance of critical and creative thinking and how such thinking can be enhanced. His 2010 book provides a detailed and balanced idea of intelligence work and will be of particular interest to students who are contemplating a career in intelligence analysis.

Part I. Problems and Possible Solutions: 1. The main challenges for intelligence analysis
2. Attempts to deal with the challenges
Part II. From the Ancient World to Modern Times: 3. Moses sends spies into Canaan
4. The Athenian campaign in Sicily
5. Caesar's campaigns in Gaul
6. Sun Tzu
7. The Spanish Armada
8. George Washington
Part III. The First Half of the Twentieth Century: 9. Wilson and the Paris Peace Conference
10. Estimating the strength of the Luftwaffe in the 1930s
11. Stalin assesses Hitler
12. Pearl Harbor
13. Targets for the Allied bombers
14. The German V weapon
Part IV. The Cold War: 15. Atomic bomb spies
16. The outbreak of the Korean War
17. Counterinsurgency in Malaya
18. Soviet strategic weapons
19. The Cuban Missile Crisis
20. Aspects of the Vietnam War
21. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
22. Finding spies: Ames and Hanssen
23. Breakup of the USSR
Part V. Other International Security Issues, Other Places: 24. The Yom Kippur War
25. Fall of the Shah
26. Nuclear weapons tests
27. A. Q. Khan
28. Iraqi weapons of mass destruction
29. Violence in Iraq
Part VI. Domestic Law Enforcement: 30. The Lindbergh kidnapping
31. Breaking the mafia
32. Airline tragedies: Pan Am Flight 103 and TWA Flight 800
33. Aum Shinrikyo
34. Colombian drug cartels
35. Wen Ho Lee
36. 9/11
37. Anthrax attacks
38. DC snipers
Part VII. Medicine and Business: 39. SARS
40. New Coke
41. Japan in the US car market
Appendix A: further recommended reading.

Subject Areas: Diplomacy [JPSD], Politics & government [JP], History [HB]