Peake, Hayden B. The Reader's Guide to Intelligence Periodicals. Washington, DC: National Intelligence Book Centre Press, 1992.
The intelligence community, rightly or wrongly, is accused frequently of not employing a sufficient variety of sources (i.e., unclassified ones) when pro ducing intelligence items for senior leadership and other decision makers. There are, in fact, many journals devoted to the study of intelligence and all its aspects; the trick is to find the good ones. The Reader's Guide to Intelligence Periodicals, by Hayden Peake, is one book that will certainly assist those who wish to find such journals.
The author served as a professional intelligence officer in the United States Army, with the Defence Intelligence Agency, and CIA prior to his retirement. Currently, he teaches counter-intelligence and intelligence history at the Defence Intelligence College in the USA. He can, therefore, comment on the periodicals with authority owing to his experience.
The Reader's Guide is divided into eight categories, including: publications devoted primarily to intelligence, such as International Journal of Intelligence and Counter-intelligence and Jane's Intelligence Review; periodicals that contain articles of intelligence interest from time to time, such as Military History (which has an espionage article in each issue); limited distribution periodicals like CIA's Factbook on Intelligence; bibliographies, intelligence databases like NAMEBASE; and other commercial computer databases, which can be useful intelligence tools like COMPUSERVE.
Each periodical is described in detail, with the author providing comments on credibility, reliability, scholarship, and usefulness for both the intelligence professional and the interested reader. The periodicals themselves run the gamut from exceptionally good (Intelligence and National Security , for example) to truly awful (Top Secret). Journals reflecting all ideologies are described in the book, from the far right to the radical left; indeed, each has its place in intelligence literature. While some can be rejected out of hand although not necessarily because of a particularly objectionable bias as useful sources, others are im portant for providing an insight into the views and values of a variety of organi zations. In addition to comments, Peake also tells the reader how, wherever possible, to subscribe to the periodicals listed in the Guide. Furthermore, he provides useful warnings when using computer databases and bulletin boards, since these sources can result in a hefty long distance bill if the user is not careful.
Most of the periodicals cited in the Guide are American. This should come as no surprise, since there are far more intelligence periodicals whatever their slant published in the USA than any other country. In addition to American journals, however, The Reader's Guide also contains periodicals from France, Germany, the UK and Canada, although there are none from either the Middle East or Asia. Readers who may not, in the main, follow intelligence issues will find other well-known sources which, from time to time, contain articles of intelligence interest. Examples of the more credible ones are Foreign Affairs, the RUSI Journal, and Survival. Canadian readers will be interested to find Conflict Quarterly as well as the Newsletter of the Canadian Association for Security and Intelligence Studies (CASIS) in the Guide. The scarcity of good quality Canadian periodicals on intelligence emphasizes a dearth of informed debate about intel ligence in this country, since little intelligence literature exists in Canada; what is written focuses almost exclusively on the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) or the Communications Security Establishment (CSE), rather than the mosaic as a whole.
To conclude, The Reader's Guide is an excellent book and a sound reference for unclassified material concerning intelligence, national security, and interna tional relations. One must always keep in mind, however, that open sources must be subjected, as Peake points out, to the same careful examination that classified sources are and treated with appropriate caution when necessary. Although The Reader's Guide is occasionally marred by some sloppy editing, it is a valuable book for anyone interested in intelligence, whether amateur or professional.
F.W. Parkinson
Victoria, BC