Consolidating Democracy: The Reform of Mongolian Intelligence

A different kind of intelligence failure

Martin E. Silverstein: Disasters: Your Right to Survive Brassey's, Washington, D.C., 1992, 207p., $26.00.

Howard R. Simpson: Tiger in the Barbed Wire: An American in Vietnam 1952–1991 Brassey's, Washington, D.C., 1992, 260 p., $23.00.

British intelligence in World War II: the final phase

F. H. Hinsley, with E. E. Thomas, C. A. G. Simkins and C. F. G. Ransom: British Intelligence in the Second World War: Its Influence on Strategy and Operations, Volume 3, Part II. Cambridge University Press, New York, 1988, 1038 p., $84.95. Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London, £29.95.

OSS special weapons and equipment: the arms of secrecy

H. Keith Melton: Spy Devices of World War II Sterling Publishing, New York, 1991, $14.95.

The new breed of spies

Thomas B. Allen and Norman Polmar: Merchants of Treason: America's Secret for Sale Delacorte Dell Press, New York, 1988, 471 p., $4.95 PB, $19.95 HB.

The Cambridge spies never die

Verne W. Newton: The Cambridge Spies: The Untold Story of Maclean, Philby, and Burgess in America Madison Books, Lanham, Md., 440 p. $24.95.     

Engaging with the Legacy of Nehemia Levtzion: An Introduction

This volume draws principally on presentations from two African Studies Association meetings (2003, 2004) that celebrated Nehemia Levtzion’s contributions to the field of Islam in Africa and reminisced about our collective personal interactions with him. It is enriched by additional papers from former students, colleagues and friends (usually one and the same), as well as from contemporary young scholars just beginning to “know” Levtzion through his legacy. The “Epilogue” gives a final, posthumous word to Levtzion himself, in an article looking at the contemporary role of fundamentalism from the perspective of an historian who spent his life engaged in the history of Islam at its Middle Eastern and African crossroads. The following pages are meant not only to pay homage to Nehemia Levtzion but also to reflect critically, to push boundaries, and to introduce Africanist scholars, engaged in other areas of study and new generations of Africanist scholars in this field, to Levtzion’s role in shaping how we have come to understand the experience of Islam in Africa.     

Intelligence agencies and democratisation: Continuity and change in Serbia after Milošević

This article examines the reform of the Serbian intelligence agencies since the fall of Slobodan Milo?evi? and argues that they are important actors in democratisation, with a powerful capacity to influence and frustrate the reform process. However, the Serbian experience demonstrates that the role of intelligence agencies in democratisation is complex. In Serbia, governance of the intelligence sector has been characterised neither by a simple maximisation of civil power over the agencies themselves, nor by outright resistance to change by inherently compromised, authoritarian-era structures. Instead, the role and reform of Serbia's intelligence agencies since 2000 has been closely integrated with developments in the political sphere, and has exhibited considerable continuity with past practice.