OVER CENTURIES Page

author of ‘Intelligence over centuries’, spoke for the 138th Synergia Forum at Synergia Foundation.

INTELLIGENCE OVER CENTURIES

Q. What is the book about? VB. This is a global history of the growth of intelligence, a form of statecraft, which rulers used from ‘Puranic’ or pre-biblical times to the modern age to achieve tighter control in the areas of governance, national security, and foreign conquests. As decreed by the rulers, its appearance was sometimes open but at times very stealthily without even casting a shadow like the mythical Equinox. Q. What is new about the book? VB. This is the first time such a book has been written on the different facets of this often imperceivable or “shadowy” subject, spanning thousands of years in mankind’s history and involving a vast landscape. Those which had appeared are predominantly confined to Western thinking and practices. No detailed reference was usually made to the wisdom and experience emanating from the East, especially the Indian contribution to this statecraft. Q. What are the other aspects of intelligence mentioned in your book? VB. It breaks down the subject into specific dimensions like the normal collection of secret human intelligence and information obtained through “covert” operations, intelligence liaison and technical means. It examines how certain countries imposed hegemonistic intelligence on others and its end results. It gives authentic details based on declassified government records of counter-intelligence activities against major spies who were already romanticised by fascinating books and movies. It then deals with the geographical development o f Vappala Balachandran a former Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, Government of India, was an intelligence practitioner for 19 years

agencies in India, Pakistan, Britain, the United States, Canada, South Africa, Israel, and former “hegemonic” systems like Soviet-dominated East German Stasi and Chinese agencies and how they broke free of Moscow’s tutelage. Also narrated is the churning of normal collection methodology when terrorism appeared with a bang and how agencies had to re-orient their existing tactics to deal with the new threats. Finally, it makes a critical examination of the successes and failures of intelligence through centuries and assesses whether it has helped or impaired the governance and the lives of citizens in different countries.