The Library
The secret empire of signals intelligence : GCHQ and the persistence of the colonial presence
Tools
Tools
Tools
Mainwaring, Sarah and Aldrich, Richard J. (2021) The secret empire of signals intelligence : GCHQ and the persistence of the colonial presence. International History Review, 43 (1). pp. 54-71. doi:10.1080/07075332.2019.1675082 ISSN 0707-5332.
|
PDF
WRAP-secret-empire-signals-persistence-British-presence-Aldrich-2019.pdf - Accepted Version - Requires a PDF viewer. Download (872Kb) | Preview |
Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/07075332.2019.1675082
Abstract
Why did Britain remove the population of an idyllic Indian Ocean archipelago? Why has Britain resisted granting citizenship to the inhabitants of another small island in the mid-Atlantic? Why does Britain still ‘own’ 90 square miles of Cyprus? The answer, we suggest, lies in part with the heritage of Bletchley Park, an obsession with informational dominance in world politics that demands the control of key nodes in international telecommunications around the globe. We also argue that intelligence studies have focused unduly on the human agent or the secret policeman and as a result, the issue of electronic imperialism has been a neglected aspect of intelligence collection across the Global South. Here we focus on Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) and suggest that computers, colonies and ocean cables enjoy strange and unexpected connections that can alter the fate of small nations. We conclude that perhaps geographers, rather than historians or political scientists, deploy the most advanced conceptual tools for examining this phenomenon.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alternative Title: | ||||||||||
| Subjects: | J Political Science > JF Political institutions (General) J Political Science > JV Colonies and colonization. Emigration and immigration. International migration |
|||||||||
| Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Politics and International Studies | |||||||||
| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Intelligence service -- Great Britain, Great Britain -- Colonies , Government communication systems | |||||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | International History Review | |||||||||
| Publisher: | Routledge | |||||||||
| ISSN: | 0707-5332 | |||||||||
| Official Date: | February 2021 | |||||||||
| Dates: |
|
|||||||||
| Volume: | 43 | |||||||||
| Number: | 1 | |||||||||
| Page Range: | pp. 54-71 | |||||||||
| DOI: | 10.1080/07075332.2019.1675082 | |||||||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | |||||||||
| Publication Status: | Published | |||||||||
| Reuse Statement (publisher, data, author rights): | “This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in International History Review on 30/10/2019, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/07075332.2019.1675082 | |||||||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | |||||||||
| Date of first compliant deposit: | 11 October 2019 | |||||||||
| Date of first compliant Open Access: | 30 April 2021 | |||||||||
| RIOXX Funder/Project Grant: |
|
|||||||||
| Related URLs: |
Request changes or add full text files to a record
Repository staff actions (login required)
 |
View Item |
Downloads
Downloads per month over past year
