Reviews for Intelligence and Strategy: Selected Essays

The average rating for Intelligence and Strategy: Selected Essays based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-12-31 00:00:00 Brian Peurifoy An overview, written in dialogue form, of the the current war perspectives, particularly political realism and just war. In my view, it does not do a very good job on pacifism and is quite dismissive of it, but it is good on 'post-war justice' (jus post bellum), which is what Orend is known for adding to the just war debate. While it does bring up all the major theoretical issues of war in a dialogue form, it does not take into account the messiness, harshness, and evil of war in a satisfactory way and is also somewhat shallow on religion.

Review # 2 was written on 2017-01-05 00:00:00 Paul Christopher This is an academic book, so it is written in such a way as to bore and exclude the average reader, so be warned. By academic, I mean they assume a certain level of knowledge is already possessed on the subject by the reader and that the reader is also willing to read above a twelfth grade level - which most people aren't. So you've been warned twice. While I found the individual chapters of the book to be interesting, the reader has to wade through forty some pages of an indulgent and idiotic introduction. Where the editor discusses the use of state-terror, but somehow never mentions its use in communist countries. Instead the author praises Noam Chomsky and places all of the blame on Western Civilization in general and the USA in specific. The introduction then discusses the use of anthropologist as activist to achieve "social justice" and point out wrongs in the world, stating that the world of anthropology needs to be "decolonized" - without explaining what that means. Then it justifies screwing the results to affect social change which invalidates most of the work everyone has done in the next several chapters. In my view, skip the introduction and dive into the meat of the matter. The rest of the book however focuses on the meat of the matter without the interference of the editor. Each chapter discusses a different use of state terror in the Basque territories of post-Franco Spain; the Punjab and Kashmir regions of India; Argentina; Guatemala; Northern Ireland; The East Timor region within Indonesia; and against the Muslim separatist movements in the Philippians. The variety of tactics are fascinating. Some operate openly, others "disappear" dissenters in the middle of the night. Many use "unofficial" paramilitary groups to do their dirty work, so that the respective governments can maintain plausible deniability while destroying their political enemies. The firsthand accounts and background material is first rate here, as is the research documentation. These chapters are what makes the book worthwhile. The introduction and conclusion can easily be excised.