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Despite publicity given to the successes of British and American codebreakers during the Second World War, the study of signals intelligence is still complicated by governmental secrecy over even the most elderly peacetime sigint. This book, first published in 1986, lifts the veil on some of these historical secrets. Christopher Andrew and Keith Neilson cast new light on how Tsarist codebreakers penetrated British code and cypher systems. John Chapman's study of German military codebreaking represents a major advance in our understanding of cryptanalysis during the Weimar Republic. The history of the Government Code and Cypher School - forerunner of today's GCHQ - by its operational head, the late A.G. Denniston, provides both a general assessment of the achievements of British cryptanalysis between the wars and a tantalising glimpse of what historians may one day find in GCHQ's forbidden archives. The distinguished cryptanalyst of Bletchley Park, the late Gordon Welchman, describes in detail how the Ultra programme defeated the German Enigma machine, while another Bletchley Park cryptographer, Christopher Morris, reminds us in his account of the valuable work on hand cyphers that wartime sigint consisted of much more than Ultra. Roger Austin's study of surveillance under the Vichy regime shows the continuing importance of older and simpler methods of message interception such as letter-opening. Taken together, the articles establish sigint as an essential field of study for both the modern historian and the political scientist.

The history of espionage is far older than any of today's intelligence agencies, yet the long history of intelligence operations has been largely forgotten. The first mention of espionage in world literature is in the Book of Exodus.'God sent out spies into the land of Canaan'. From there, Christopher Andrew traces the shift in the ancient world from divination to what we would recognize as attempts to gather real intelligence in the conduct of military operations, and considers how far ahead of the West - at that time - China and India were. He charts the development of intelligence and security operations and capacity through, amongst others, Renaissance Venice, Elizabethan England, Revolutionary America, Napoleonic France, right up to sophisticated modern activities of which he is the world's best-informed interpreter. What difference have security and intelligence operations made to course of history? Why have they so often forgotten by later practitioners? This fascinating book provides the answers.

Intro -- Half Title -- Title -- Dedication -- Copyright -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Introduction: The Lost History of Global Intelligence -- 1 In the Beginning: Spies of the Bible and Ancient Egypt from Moses to the Last Supper -- 2 Intelligence Operations in Ancient Greece: Myth and Reality from Odysseus to Alexander the Great -- 3 Intelligence and Divination in the Roman Republic -- 4 The Art of War and the Arthashastra: How China and India Took an Early Lead over Greece and Rome -- 5 The Roman Empire and the Untermenschen -- 6 Muhammad and the Rise of Islamic Intelligence -- 7 Inquisitions and Counter-Subversion -- 8 Renaissance Venice and the Rise of Western Intelligence -- 9 Ivan the Terrible and the Origins of Russian State Security -- 10 Elizabeth I, Walsingham and the Rise of English Intelligence -- 11 The Decline of Early Stuart and Spanish Intelligence, and the Rise of the French Cabinet Noir -- 12 Intelligence and Regime Change in Britain: From the Civil War to the Popish Plot -- 13 Intelligence in the Era of the Sun King -- 14 Codebreakers and Spies in Ancien Régime Europe: From the Hanoverian Succession to the Seven Years War -- 15 Intelligence and American Independence -- 16 The French Revolution and the Revolutionary Wars -- 17 The Napoleonic Wars -- 18 Intelligence and Counter-Revolution. Part I: From the Congress of Vienna to the 1848 Revolutions -- 19 Intelligence and Counter-Revolution. Part II: From 1848 to the Death of Karl Marx -- 20 The Telegraph, Mid-Century Wars and the 'Great Game' -- 21 'The Golden Age of Assassination': Anarchists, Revolutionaries and the Black Hand, 1880-1914 -- 22 The Great Powers and Foreign Intelligence, 1890-1909 -- 23 Intelligence and the Coming of the First World War -- 24 The First World War. Part I: From the Outbreak of War to the Zimmermann Telegram.