Reconceiving Realism

Willmetts, Simon

doi:10.3366/edinburgh/9780748646272.003.0008

Intelligence Studies in Britain and the US 2013

DOI: 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748646272.003.0008

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Reconceiving Realism

Simon Willmetts¹

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Cited by 8 publications

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“…It reinforces arguments advanced by scholars elsewhere that separating academic studies of intelligence from cultural representations of the secret world is impractical and reductive. 6 Collaborations between intelligence services and the artistic world have been extensively documented. 7 Attempting to disaggregate cultural production informed by intelligence activity from its broader social and political context is problematic.…”

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confidence: 99%

The neo-imperialism of decolonisation: John le Carré and Cold War India

McGarr¹

2022

Intelligence and National Security

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The neo-imperialism of decolonisation: John le Carré and Cold War India

McGarr¹

2022

Intelligence and National Security

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“…As I have detailed elsewhere, two approaches to spy fiction and the representation of espionage in popular media are pre-eminent within the discipline. 9 The first, what I call the 'mythbusting' approach, offers, in its crudest form, a balance sheet of the myths and realities of espionage, setting fictional characters and events against their real-life counterparts, and pointing out the inconsistencies between these two columns in the ledger of historical authenticity. The second dominant approach looks for the 'real-world impact' of popular representations upon the work and development of intelligence agencies.…”

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The cultural turn in intelligence studies

Willmetts¹

2019

Intelligence and National Security

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This article explores an emerging "cultural turn" in intelligence studies, which, if fully realized, could entail the expansion of the discipline to include new methodologies and theories, and a more integrative understanding of historical causality that locates intelligence agencies within the widersocio-cultural domain they inhabit. It has two parts. The firstexpands upon what I mean by a new 'integrative' understanding of historical causality. The second explores three areas of interest for intelligence scholars where the "cultural turn" has clear and important implications: the study of secrecy, publicity, and "mentalities". In recent years a new wave of scholarship, focusing upon the representation of secret intelligence services in various media, has added new vitality to the discipline of intelligence studies. 1 It is tempting, therefore, to identify this topical interest in the popular mediation of intelligence agencies as the titular 'cultural turn' of this article, and leave it at that. But topicality alone cannot constitute a disciplinary 'turn'. At stake in this expansion of the discipline to include a consideration of 'culture' is something much more fundamental than simply a question of what topics are permissible. In this article I will argue that two conditions are necessary for a fully fledged cultural turn in intelligence studies: the first is an openness to new methodologies and theoretical paradigms, often borrowed from other disciplines, and in particular from the fields of cultural studies, literary theory and the philosophy of history. The second is a new understanding of historical causality that is integrative, recognising that intelligence, as with the rest of the political domain, 'does not constitute itself independent of and external to societybut is a place of almost continuous sociopolitical interaction.' Intelligence scholars, to borrow Steven Pincus and William Novak's wording, 'should not assume that their chosen area of inquiry can be studied abstracted from other elements of historical experience.' 2 Nor, it should be added, are many of those other elements of historical experience entirely abstracted from the history of secret intelligence. This article is therefore not intended as a comprehensive literature review of recent cultural studies of intelligence, though it does identify what this author considers some of the more significant works that assume one or both of the conditions described above. Nor is it a purely descriptive account of a 'cultural turn' in intelligence studies that has already occurred. Rather, it seeks to extrapolate from an emerging tendency within the field, a nascent cultural turn if you will, still in the making, in order to outline some guiding principles for its future development, as well as explore some of its implications for the study of intelligence. There are two sections to this article. The first expands upon what I mean by a new 'integrative' understanding of historical causality, and contrasts it with traditional historical approaches to...

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‘The tortuousness of our Albanian allies’: Special Operations Executive in Albania through the eyes of Anthony Quayle’s Eight hours from England

Best¹

2021

Intelligence and National Security

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Reconceiving Realism

Cited by 8 publications

References 0 publications

The neo-imperialism of decolonisation: John le Carré and Cold War India

The neo-imperialism of decolonisation: John le Carré and Cold War India

The cultural turn in intelligence studies

‘The tortuousness of our Albanian allies’: Special Operations Executive in Albania through the eyes of Anthony Quayle’s Eight hours from England

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