Intelligence Power in Practice

This volume draws on Herman's professional experience and personal recollections to examine the past and present of British intelligence.

In twenty-one chapters he offers an insider's perspective on the Cold War intelligence contest against the Soviet Union and its continuing legacy today. This includes proposals for intelligence ethics and reform in the twenty-first century, and the declassified copy of his evidence to the 2004 Butler Review. Herman also discusses the role of personalities in the British intelligence community, producing sketches of Cold War contemporaries on the JIC and several Directors of GCHQ.

The combination of operational experience and academic reflection makes this volume a unique contribution to intelligence scholarship.

Michael Herman (1929-2021) was the world's leading intelligence practitioner-academic. Among his senior roles during a thirty-five year career in Her Majesty's Civil Service, he was Secretary of the Joint Intelligence Committee from 1972-75, and Head of several GCHQ Divisions in the 1970s-80s. After his professional retirement, he was a Gwilym Gibbon Research Fellow at Nuffield College Oxford and founding director of the Oxford Intelligence Group.

Author: Michael Herman, David Schaefer
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Published: 08/31/2024
Pages: 432
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.33lbs
Size: 9.21h x 6.14w x 0.88d
ISBN: 9781474499552

About the Author

Michael Herman was an intelligence practitioner, and author of the acclaimed Intelligence Power in Peace and War (1996) among other works. Among his senior roles during a thirty-five year career in Her Majesty's Civil Service, he was Secretary of the Joint Intelligence Committee from 1972-75, and Head of several GCHQ Divisions in the 1970s-80s. After his professional retirement, he was a Gwilym Gibbon Research Fellow at Nuffield College Oxford and founding director of the Oxford Intelligence Group.

David Schaefer is a researcher in the Department of War Studies at King's College London. He was previously a Junior Research Fellow at Ormond College in the University of Melbourne, and a Research Associate at Asialink Diplomacy.