Peacekeeping Intelligence: Emerging Concepts for the Future [Hardcover]

Wies Platje (Author), Robert David Steele (Author, Editor), Ben de Jong (Author, Editor, Foreword), Dame Pauline Neville-Jones (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 15, 2003

Each year millions of people die, are displaced, become diseased, or suffer severe depravations at the hands of rogue states, predatory ethnic groups or tribes, or ruthless terrorist and criminal organizations. Around the globe, while recognizing the important efforts of selected Nation-States and selected Non-Governmental Organizations, only one organization can be said to be truly concerned with global security and global prosperity in the common interest of all mankind: the United Nations. Unfortunately, the United Nations has chosen to ignore the proven process of "intelligence" by confusing it with espionage. Intelligence is not about espionage, it is about rationalized decision-support in which global sources of information in many languages and many mediums (oral, written, imaged) are deliberated collected, processed, analyzed, and presented to decision-makers in order to reduce uncertainty, suggest alternatives, and otherwise make instability more manageable. This book is the first book to bring together a combination of experienced United Nations military commanders, experienced national intelligence leaders, and scholars of United Nations and insurgency history. It combines the results of the first annual conference on peacekeeping intelligence help in The Netherlands in November 2002, with eight seminal works from the past, and three vital references for the future--extracts from the Brahimi Report with intelligence-related footnotes; a completely new Peacekeeping Intelligence Leadership Digest 1.0 distilled from the entire book into 35 pages; and pointers to both the three North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) doctrinal documents on Open Source Intelligence (OSINT), and to a selective group of recent references, most available online. This book is, in essence, "Ref A" for the future of intelligence at the United Nations.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Where there is ... intelligence failure, in the end there will be ... the human victims... --Peacekeeping Intelligence, Flyleaf (Advance Review)

From the Publisher

OSS was inspired to publish this book because of three related circumstances: 1) the quality of the conference speakers brought together by the Netherlands Defence College and the Netherlands Intelligence Studies Association; 2) the paucity of useful public intelligence in the media, about the 32 failed states, 66 countries with refugees and displaced persons, 59 countries with modern plagues, 33 countries with starving populations, 18 specific genocides on-going today but out of the public eye--and the looming issues of water scarcity, resource wars, and general corruption within Member governments; and 3) the lack of a United Nations strategic intelligence capability suited for confronting manipulative, deceptive, and war-mongering Member states claiming to have credible objective intelligence about Iraq and weapons of mass destruction. To this we say: "Never Again." If the United Nations will not accept the challenge of creating a Global Intelligence Council relying predominantly on open sources of information, then such a Council must be created independently of the United Nations. In either case, the global information society must have a structured focal point for evaluating all threats and all conditions in an objective manner that is not subject to political corruption.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 532 pages
• Publisher: OSS International Press (May 15, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0971566127
• ISBN-13: 978-0971566125
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,777,284 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally, Intelligence with brains, October 8, 2003

By 

Rob Sentse, Royal Netherlands Army (Europe) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Peacekeeping Intelligence: Emerging Concepts for the Future (Hardcover)

Book review

This book was published following the Conference on Peacekeeping and Intelligence held on 15 and 16 November 2002 at the IDL (Instituut Defensie Leergangen) in The Hague on the initiative of NISA (Netherlands Intelligence Studies Association) and comprises 5 sections.

Section 1,2,3 : etc. see source text.

Until recently mentioning the UN and Intelligence in one sentence was almost taboo. Even today one of the largest problems for the UN are the conflicting interests of a large part of the 186 member states. This is clearly illustrated by Sir Robert Ramsbotham, who refers to a telling statement on page 281 of Peacekeeping Intelligence: Intelligence has been regarded as a dirty word in UN parlance. More and more, however, the UN have begun to realise that Intelligence is crucial.

The editors (Ben de Jong, Wies Platje and Rober David Steele) have successfully collected 13 contributions written by people experienced in both Intelligence and Peacekeeping operations and managed to compile a clear reference book.

In section I a case is made why a professional Intelligence Service should be implemented at the UN Headquarters.

Section II offers an overview of lesson learnt from an academic and historical perspective. Experiences from the past show the need for UN member states participating in a UN mission to share Intelligence. After all, UN units have to conduct operations in a complex theatre where criminal gangs, warlords and corrupt politicians rule.

In Section III four specialists go into the necessary shift in thinking about Intelligence with UN member states. A common policy is proposed which should lead to a UN training centre for UN Intelligence personnel as well as procedures which regulate the exchange of Intelligence among member states.

In Section IV eight renowned authors, from a variety of perspectives, go into the many challenges the UN and NATO are still facing in the field of Intelligence. Mainly focussing on the idea that there are no clear reasons why the UN should not support their peacekeeping missions by a professional Intelligence Service.

In the final section (Section V) a general overview is presented of a large number of references. In addition to this some extra interesting reading material is included. Especially the chapter comprising the Brahimi report presented to the UN Secretary General on 17 August 2000 is commendable as it focuses on the necessity of Intelligence at the UN on strategic, operational and tactical level.

The deficiencies and perversions of the present system (faxes on genocide in Rwanda ignored in 1994, countries participating in multi-national peace operations hampering each other, bureaucratic adversity, civilians and bluehelmets victimized for the sake of impartiality of the organisation) are made painfully plain in this book.

All in all, it is a useful and challenging book, particularly for politicians, the intelligence community and defence personnel.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Peacekeeping and Intelligence: a welcome primer., August 29, 2003

By 

dr. Ko Colijn (Leiden, ZH Netherlands) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Peacekeeping Intelligence: Emerging Concepts for the Future (Hardcover)

In Peacekeeping Intelligence - emerging concepts for the future
(Ben de Jong, Wies Platje, Robert David Steele, eds.) OSS
International Press, Oakton

Va. 2003, an international group of authors brings together a usefull and insiders' study on a rare but highly relevant combination of security aspects. As a sovereign asset pur sang, intelligence is traditionally hardly considered as a viable tool for multinational security operations. Even the most legitimate among them, UN-mandated pko's (peacekeeping operations), suffer from poor coordination and cooperation among national services, insufficient intelligence input, and national-interest biased output. This volume case studies on Rwanda, Bosnia, Cambodia and many others, partly based on first hand experiences by field practitioners who served in the field or in the pko bureaucracies. The studies demonstrate the importance of solid intelligence in the first place (as in any other security effort) as well as the need for a much better, preferably much more autonomous intelligence organization at the multilateral cq. UN-level. Not a very popular theme in times unilateralism and US-scepsis on UN-led peacekeeping operations, the book offers a competent and convincing selection of studies converging to this conclusion. This volume is highly recommended as well as a classics reader, as it includes some of the most authoritative articles written in the past on this subject. The book is a welcome spin-off from an international expert conference held under the auspices of the NISA (Dutch Intelligence Studies Association) and the Dutch Ministry of Defence in Fall 2002.

Dr.Ko Colijn
Department of Public Policy Studies
Erasmus University Rotterdam
Defense Correspondent Vrij Nederland Amsterdam.

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Remarkably timely and valuable, July 16, 2003

By 

Ralph H. Peters (Washington, D.C. area) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Peacekeeping Intelligence: Emerging Concepts for the Future (Hardcover)

Given the challenges faced by the U.S. armed forces and our government in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Balkans (still) and, possibly soon, in Africa, this book is as timely in its subject matter as it is sensible and useful. The editors (de Jong, Platje and America's inimitable Robert Steele) have assembled subject matter experts from almost a dozen countries with peacekeeping experience, and they've done a fine job of keeping the entries clear, readable and focused. Having worked in intelligence for over two decades myself, I can attest that the deep human challenges of intelligence operations during peacekeeping and peacemaking operations remain insufficiently met by our own or other intelligence bureaucracies. It's not a matter of failure, but of (too often) mediocrity and inadequacy in the clinch. Intelligence systems that are still haunted by the legacies of Cold War hardware and, worse, Cold War thinking still have not adapted adequately to our grave new world. We're learning, but perhaps not quickly enough. Steele, especially, has campaigned boldly in the cause of using open-source material to supplement classified data--and, in some cases, to supplant it--and we may expect powerful results wherever his advice is taken to heart. Overall, this is a valuable, useful, thoughtful book one can strongly recommend both for professionals in the field and interested citizens. Well done!