Military intelligence

Military intelligence is information about a real or possible enemy. The information has first been interpreted and evaluated. It can include the terrain, the weather, and any other information about a theater of operations.Intelligence Theory: Key Questions and Debates, eds. Peter Gill, Stephen Marrin, Mark Phythian (Oxford; New York, Routledge, 2009), p. 27 Military intelligence gathering has a long history with military studies.

 History 

During the Battle of Kadesh in  BC Egyptian, Pharaoh Ramses II was known to have had court spies.Terry Crowdy, The Enemy Within: A History of Spies, Spymasters and Espionage (Oxford; New York: Osprey, 2006), p. 15 In the biblical Book of Genesis, Joseph thought that his brothers were Canaanite spies.

The Chinese general and strategist Sun Tzu (544 BC – 496 BC) wrote about the importance of military intelligence. In his book, The Art of War, he wrote, "If you know both yourself and your enemy you can win a hundred battles without jeopardy."The Politics Book, ed. Rob Colson (New York : DK Publishing, Inc., 2013), pp. 30–31 He emphasized the importance of using spies to learn an enemy's strength and what it was doing. He also wrote, "All warfare is based on deception".Karen McCreadie, Sun Tzu's The Art of War: A 52 Brilliant Ideas interpretation (Oxford : Infinite Ideas, 2006), p. 13 What he meant was war can even be avoided if the enemy is fred enough bad information. That is also called counterintelligence. Ancient Rome depended heavily on intelligence information to rule its empire.

When Major General Joseph Hooker took command of the Army of the Potomac, he ordered Colonel George H. Sharpe to establish an intelligence unit. In 1863, they established the Bureau of Military Information.Jurgen Brauer; Hubert van Tuyll, Castles, Battles, and Bombs: How Economics Explains Military History (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008), 166 The information they gathered was amazingly accurate. They calculated the size of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia within 2% of the actual number. By the war's end, Sharpe knew more about the Army of Northern Virginia than many Confederate officers. One of the best sources of military information for Sharpe's organization was the slaves who had used the Underground Railroad to escape the South.

During World War I, intelligence became better organized. For the first time, airplanes were used to gather intelligence.James L. Gilbert, World War I and the Origins of U.S. Military Intelligence (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2012), p. vii Air observers would fly with a pilot and diagram and map battlefields. They would also photograph intelligence targets and count troops. Operators at listening stations reported on enemy communications.

 Climate 

Before the 20th century, accurate weather information was not available.Intelligence and Military Operations, ed. Michael Handel (Oxford: Cass, 2004), p. 88 Military planners had no data on the climate of their target area. In many cases, they did not even have accurate maps of the area. In 1941, when the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, they did not have any information on how harsh the winters were in Russia. They also id not have accurate maps of the roads before they started Operation Barbarossa. Between October 1941 and April 1942, the Germans lost between 100,000 and 112, 000 soldiers to frostbite. That is two thirds of the number of their soldiers who were killed in action or missing.

 Terrain 

General knowledge of terrain has always been important to military intelligence, but environmental factors sometimes went unnoticed. At the Battle of Agincourt, mud was a major factor in the English victory. The extremely muddy ground slowed down the French and made them easy prey for English archers.George Alfred Henty, At Agincourt: A Tale of the White Hoods of Paris (New York: C. Scribner's, 1902), p. 324 In the 17th and 18th centuries, army quartermasters, in addition to providing supplies, also scouted terrain and planned the routes that their armies would take.David Kahn, 'The Rise of Intelligence', Foreign Affairs, Vol. 85, No. 5 (Sep. - Oct., 2006), p. 126 One of the first major improvements in gaining scientific knowledge of terrain was during the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905). The Russians used geologists to do a detailed survey of Korea.Joseph S. C. Smith, 'Military Applications of Geology', Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science,  Vol. 67, No. 2 (Summer, 1964), p. 313 They also used geologists to advise them in building fortifications.

Having little or no knowledge of terrain has proved costly to many battles in history. During the Pacific War in World War II, the United States forces had little knowledge of the terrain of the many Pacific Islands before they fought there. After the war, the United States Army Corps of Engineers decided to contract with the United States Geological Survey to provide detailed geological information on the occupied islands.Gilbert Corwin, 'Engineer intelligence and the Pacific geologic mapping program', Military Geology in War and Peace, eds. James R. Underwood; Peter L. Guth (Boulder, CO: Geological Society of America, 1998), p. 67

 Modern military intelligence 

In addition to intelligence gathering on other countries, terrorism is also a major concern of military intelligence.Martin, C. Augustus (ed) 2011. The SAGE Encyclopedia of Terrorism. 2nd ed, Thousand Oaks: SAGE, p. 277. Intelligence gathering by examining communications signals has been a regular activity of military intelligence. Since 2005, military and other intelligence services have also monitored the Internet.

In the 21st century, some countries have military intelligence competing with civilian-led intelligence agencies.Peter Jackson & L.V. Scott (eds) 2004. Understanding Intelligence in the Twenty-First Century: Journeys in Shadows. London; New York: Routledge, p. 148 Often, military and civilian intelligence gathering have different goals and objectives. Both of them gather their own intelligence and do not always share information. New methods of intelligence gathering, such as video imagery, satellites, reconnaissance aircraft, and drones, produce tremendous amounts of raw data. Artificial intelligence is used to analyze the data for information.Keith Frankish, William M. Ramsey (eds) 2014. The Cambridge Handbook of Artificial Intelligence.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 26

 References 

 Other websites 
 The Uncertain Oracle; Some Intelligence Failures Revisited (Pdf) 
 The History of the Intelligence Corps (Pdf) 
 The Mongol Intelligence Apparatus (Pdf) 

Category:Espionage
Category:Intelligence agencies
Category:Military terminology