This book offers a cultural history of British intelligence–gathering in the Middle East in the era of World War One and its consequences in British literary and political culture and military and state practice. Culture mattered especially in this intelligence endeavor because of British agents' orientalist preconceptions of “Arabia” as an inscrutable, romantic space offering adventure and spiritualism. They developed an intelligence epistemology grounded in intuition, elevating as “experts” those claiming an innate “genius” for understanding the region, regardless of empirical knowledge. Thi ... More

This book offers a cultural history of British intelligence–gathering in the Middle East in the era of World War One and its consequences in British literary and political culture and military and state practice. Culture mattered especially in this intelligence endeavor because of British agents' orientalist preconceptions of “Arabia” as an inscrutable, romantic space offering adventure and spiritualism. They developed an intelligence epistemology grounded in intuition, elevating as “experts” those claiming an innate “genius” for understanding the region, regardless of empirical knowledge. This intelligence culture assured the agents an unusual influence in the running of the Great War campaigns and postwar mandatory administrations in the region, notably in the British state's conspiracy fears and consequent design of a brutal air control regime for Iraq. The book argues that violence and culture were more closely allied in imperial rule than has been recognized, ironically, especially at a moment of popular anti–imperialism and increasing mass democracy. As the British public demanded control over foreign policy in the Middle East, the imperial state developed new means of keeping its affairs secret, developing a style of colonial rule that Priya Satia calls “covert empire,” in which airpower, intelligence agents, and propaganda were critical. As democratic oversight vanished, colonial violence reached a new pitch, with lasting consequences in the Middle East, British attitudes towards the state, and, and military tactics. The book offers a new understanding of the legacies of the Great War and of the British empire in the 20th century.