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  3. Challenges in Intelligence Analysis
  • Cited by 9
    • This textbook will transition to Cambridge Core on 6 July 2026. Please take a moment to export any annotations you may have created on the eTextbook before the move.
      • Timothy Walton, Institute for Intelligence Studies, Mercyhurst College, Washington, DC
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    • Publisher:
      Cambridge University Press
      Publication date:
      05 June 2012
      30 August 2010
      ISBN:
      9780511779220
      9780521764414
      9780521132657
      DOI:
      https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511779220
      Dimensions:
      (234 x 156 mm)
      Weight & Pages:
      0.56kg, 308 Pages
      Dimensions:
      (234 x 156 mm)
      Weight & Pages:
      0.43kg, 310 Pages
      • Subjects:
      Area Studies, American Studies, Diplomatic and International History, American Government, Politics and Policy, History, Politics and International Relations

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    Subjects:
    Area Studies, American Studies, Diplomatic and International History, American Government, Politics and Policy, History, Politics and International Relations
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    Book description

    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.

    Reviews

    “Serious students of intelligence learn far more from examining the successes and failures of actual cases than they do from abstract theorizing. They want to hear it from someone who has been there and who can speak from firsthand experience. In my opinion, it would be hard to find anyone with better credentials to write a book on intelligence analysis from a practitioner’s standpoint than Tim Walton.”
    – James M. Olson, The Bush School of Government and Public Service, Texas A&M University, and former Chief of CIA Counterintelligence

    “Timothy Walton has written the best beginner’s guide to the complex world of intelligence analysis with a historical perspective that also deserves to be pondered by experienced analysts.”
    – Christopher Andrew, Corpus Christi College, University of Cambridge, author of The Defence of the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5 and The Mitrokhin Archive: The KGB in Europe and the West

    “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

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    Contents

    Page 1 of 2

    Contents

    Page 1 of 2

    References
    Further Recommended Reading
    Anderson, Terence, Schum, David, and Twining, William, Analysis of Evidence, 2nd ed., New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
    Betts, Richard, Surprise Attack: Lessons for Defense Planning, Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1982.
    Boba, Rachel, Crime Analysis and Crime Mapping: An Introduction, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2005.
    Cradock, Percy, Know Your Enemy: How the Joint Intelligence Committee Saw the World, London: John Murray, 2002.
    Diamond, John, The CIA and the Culture of Failure: U.S. Intelligence from the End of the Cold War to the Invasion of Iraq, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2008.
    Dvornik, Francis, Origins of Intelligence Services, New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1974.
    Hughes-Wilson, John, Military Intelligence Blunders, New York: Carroll & Graf, 1999.
    Janis, Irving, Victims of Group Think, Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1972.
    Jervis, Robert, Perception and Misperception in International Politics, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1976.
    Jervis, Robert, Why Intelligence Fails, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2010.
    Kam, Ephraim, Surprise Attack: The Victim's Perspective, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1988.
    Keegan, John, Intelligence in War: Knowledge of the Enemy from Napoleon to al-Qaeda, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2003.
    McDowell, Don, Strategic Intelligence: A Handbook for Practitioners, Managers, and Users, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2009.
    Moore, David T., Critical Thinking and Intelligence Analysis, Washington, DC: Joint Military Intelligence College Press, 2006.
    Neilson, Keith, and McKercher, B. J. C., eds., Go Spy the Land: Military Intelligence in History, Westport, CT: Praeger, 1992.
    Neustadt, Richard E., and May, Ernest R., Thinking in Time: The Uses of History for Decision Makers, New York: The Free Press, 1986.
    Noftsinger, John B.., Understanding Homeland Security: Policy, Perspectives, and Paradoxes, New York: Palgrave, 2007.
    Ratcliffe, Jerry H., Intelligence-Led Policing, Portland, OR: Willan, 2008.
    Vertzberger, Yaacov, Risk Taking and Decision Making: Military Intervention Decisions, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1998.
    Winks, Robin W., Cloak & Gown: Scholars in the Secret War, 1939–1961, New York: William Morrow, 1987.

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