Disrupt and Deny

The untold story of Britain's covert military and intelligence operations since the end of World War II, and its secret scheming against enemies, as well as friends.

British leaders use spies and Special Forces to interfere in the affairs of others discreetly and deniably. Since 1945, MI6 has spread misinformation designed to divide and discredit targets from the Middle East to Eastern Europe and Northern Ireland. It has instigated whispering campaigns and planted false evidence on officials working behind the Iron Curtain, tried to foment revolution in Albania, blown up ships to prevent the passage of refugees to Israel, and secretly funnelled aid to insurgents in Afghanistan and dissidents in Poland. MI6 has launched cultural and economic warfare against Iceland and Czechoslovakia. It has tried to instigate coups in Congo, Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and elsewhere. Through bribery and blackmail, Britain has rigged elections as colonies moved to independence. Britain has fought secret wars in Yemen, Indonesia, and Oman -- and discreetly used Special Forces to eliminate enemies from colonial Malaya to Libya during the Arab Spring.

This is covert action: a vital, though controversial, tool of statecraft and perhaps the most sensitive of all government activity. If used wisely, it can play an important role in pursuing national interests in a dangerous world. If used poorly, it can cause political scandal -- or worse.

In Disrupt and Deny, Rory Cormac tells the remarkable true story of Britain's secret scheming against its enemies, as well as its friends; of intrigue and manoeuvring within the darkest corridors of Whitehall, where officials fought to maintain control of this most sensitive and seductive work; and, above all, of Britain's attempt to use smoke and mirrors to mask decline. He reveals hitherto secret operations, the slush funds that paid for them, and the battles in Whitehall that shaped them.

This is a ground-breaking book--the first history of British covert action ever published, from wartime SOE to new and unacknowledged adventures in Syria."

Auteur
Dr Rory Cormac is an Associate Professor of International Relations at the University of Nottingham. A Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a leading expert among a new generation of intelligence historians, he specialises in British covert operations and the secret pursuit of foreign policy. He has published widely on intelligence and security issues and regularly appears on radio and television. He is the co-author of The Black Door: Spies, Secret Intelligence and British Prime Ministers and featured on Channel 4's Spying on the Royals.

Texte du rabat

The untold story of Britain's covert military and intelligence operations since the end of World War II, and its secret scheming against enemies, as well as friends.

Contenu

• Introduction: Covert Action

• Part I - Cold War

• 1: False Starts: From Counter Attack to Liberation

• 2: Operation Valuable: Defending Greece; Detaching Albania

• 3: Pinpricks: The Early Cold War

• 4: A Long Game: Exploiting Rifts Behind the Iron Curtain

• Part II - End of Empire

• 5: Operations Boot: Regime Change in Iran

• 6: Expansion: Covert Action Before Suez

• 7: Interdependence: Covert Action After Suez

• 8: Decolonisation and Drift: The Battle for Influence after Empire

• 9: Militarisation: Secret Wars in Yemen and Indonesia

• Part III - Age of Illusions

• 10: Operation Storm and Beyond: From Latin America to Oman

• 11: Troubles: Covert Action in Northern Ireland

• 12: Containment: The Second Cold War

• 13: Transition: The New Agenda

• 14: Counter-Terrorism: Disrupting Threats; Managing Risk

• Conclusion: The British Way

• Bibliography

• Index