The Special Issue of our Journal is available!
You can find the Journal of Intelligence History, Volume 21, Issue 3 (2022) on Taylor & Francis Online.
This special issue of the Journal of Intelligence History presents a selection of case studies which examine aspects of the intelligence activities of European governments between roughly 1500 and 1750. Deeply rooted in empirical investigations, the contributions offer reflections on the process of intelligence more generally, its organisation, its place in governance, and its relevance (or irrelevance as Matthias Pohlig’s article argues) to decision-making which are of interest not only to specialists in early modern history but to historians of intelligence more generally. It is our hope that this collection will help stimulate and intensify discussions between scholars working on the subject of intelligence in different periods in order to overcome a chronological compartmentalisation which is an obstacle to the better understanding of historical developments and phenomena – especially when the proverbial ‘second oldest profession’ is concerned. In the process, the issue and its contributions challenge the notion that systematic intelligence work is a modern, or even more particularly a twentieth-century phenomenon and that intelligence activities before then were mainly ‘private venture[s]’.
Tobias P. Graf & Charlotte Backerra (2022)