William Playfair, pioneer of modern intelligence

This chapter traces the evolution of statistical graphics starting with its departure from the common noun structure of Cartesian determinism, through William Playfair's revolutionary grammatical shift to graphs as proper nouns, and alights on the modern conception of graph as an active participant in the scientific process of discovery. The ubiquitous availability of data, software, and cheap, high-powered, computing when coupled with the broad acceptance of the ideas in Tukey's 1977 treatise on exploratory data analysis has yielded a fundamental change in the way that the role of statistical graphics is thought of within science-as a dynamic partner and guide to the future rather than as a static monument to the discoveries of the past. We commemorate and illustrate this development while pointing readers to the new tools available and providing some indications of their potential.

In this paper we trace the evolution of statistical graphics from its departure from the common noun structure of Cartesian determinism, through William Playfair's revolutionary grammatical shift to graphs as proper nouns and alight on the modern conception of graph as an active participant in the scientific process of discovery. The ubiquitous availability of data, software, and cheap, high-powered computing when coupled with the broad acceptance of the ideas in Tukey's 1977 treatise on exploratory data analysis has yielded a fundamental change in the way that the role of statistical graphics is thought of within science — as a dynamic partner and guide to the future rather than as a static monument to the discoveries of the past. We commemorate and illustrate this development while pointing readers to the new tools available and provide some indications of their potential.

In 1786 William Playfair published The commercial and political atlas. Unlike conventional atlases, the volume contained no maps but it did contain charts of a novel and unfamiliar variety. The Atlas contained several tables and 44 charts summarizing trade between England and other countries. The use of tables to present economic data was not new, having been common for more than a century aer John Graunt (1620-1674), who had used them extensively in his Natural and political observations made upon the bills of mortality, and Sir William Petty (1623-1687), who had examined the role of the state in the economy in his Treatise on taxes and contributions; coincidentally, both books were published in 1662. But Playfair’s pictorial representation of economic data was revolutionary.

The concept of intelligence in management is gaining relevance in the economic organizations. Intelligence demands to highlight the trinomial «information-knowledge-action» as a determining factor in the economic decision. The great revolution focuses on finding solutions, from a system logic of action based on knowledge and learning, capable of generating organizational intelligence allowing new dynamics of evolution. The organizational intelligence, as a vital condition to the competitiveness and sustainability, should question the organizational dynamics to innovation and value creation. The new challenges associated with network society and collaborative economic logic elicits a reflection about the new concepts and methodologies capable of aggregating the specificity of the multidisciplinary activities of the current economic reality. The aim of this work is to identify the core elements to the creation of organizational intelligence in the hospital sector and validate its applicability in management support and organizational decision.

Author Bradley Smith reveals the surprisingly rich exchange of wartime intelligence between the Anglo-American allies and the Soviet Union, as well as the procedures and politics that made such an exchange possible. Between the late 1930s and 1945, allied intelligence organisations expanded at an enormous rate in order to acquire the secret information their governments needed to win the war. But, as Smith demonstrates, the demand for intelligence far outpaced the ability of any one ally to produce it. For that reason, Washington, London and Moscow were compelled to share some of their most sensitive secrets. Historians have long known about the close Anglo-American intelligence collaboration, but until now the Soviet connection has been largely unexplored. Smith contends that Cold War animosities helped keep this story from a public that might have found it hard to believe that such cooperation was ever possible. In fact, official denials - from such illustrious Cold Warriors as Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell and the CIA's Sherman Kent - continued well into the late 1980s. Smith argues that, contrary to the official story, Soviet-American intelligence exchanges were both extensive and successful. He shows that East and West were not as hostile to each other during the war or as determined to march right off into the Cold War as many have suggested. Among other things, he provides convincing evidence that the US Army gave the Soviets its highest-grade ULTRA intelligence in August 1945 to speed up the Soviet advances in the Far East. Based on interviews and research in Anglo-American archives and despite limited access to tenaciously guarded Soviet documents, Smith's book persuasively demonstrates how reluctant and suspicious allies, driven by the harsh realities of total war, finally set aside their ideological differences to work closely with people they neither trusted not particularly liked.

The disciplines of strategic intelligence at the governmental level and competitive business intelligence constitute accepted methods of decision-supporting to prevent mistakes and strategic surprise. This research discovered that many researchers in the intelligence field feel that intelligence methodology in both contexts has reached a “glass ceiling.” Thus far, research has focused separately on national intelligence and intelligence in business, without any attempt to benchmark from one field to the other. This book shows that it is possible to use experience gained in the business field to improve intelligence practices in national security, and vice versa through mutual learning. The book’s main innovation is its proposition that mutual learning can be employed in the context of a model distinguishes between concentrated and diffused surprises to provide a breakthrough in the intelligence field, thereby facilitating better prediction of the surprise development. We Never Expected That: A Comparative Study of Failures in National and Business Intelligence focuses on a comparison between how states, through their intelligence organizations, cope with strategic surprises and how business organizations deal with unexpected movement in their field. Based on this comparison, the author proposes a new model which can better address the challenge of avoiding strategic surprises. This book can contribute significantly to the study of intelligence, which will become more influential in the coming years.

With the advent of new technologies and the accelerated changes in the security arena, it has become apparent that intelligence organizations need to develop learning, self-reflective, and competitive working environments and communities of practice with a distinct set of values and norms that may go beyond the cultural values and practices of the twentieth century. One of the values that needs to be further explored and integrated is diversity. A look at the literature and policies in the field shows that in certain parts of the world, consistent steps have been made toward investigating the implications of diversity and inclusion as setting goals for reconceptualizing human resources and internal culture strategies. This introductory study aims to introduce readers to the current debates on diversity and inclusion, as well as offer a short glimpse at the questions that animated the authors who agreed to contribute to this special issue.

In February 1967, officials from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) were horrified when the American west-coast magazine, Ramparts, exposed the U.S. intelligence organization’s longstanding financial relationships with a number of international educational institutions and cultural bodies. In a series of articles, reproduced in The New York Times and The Washington Post, Ramparts documented the CIA’s provision of covert funding to, among others, the National Students Association, Asia Foundation, and Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF). In India, an outpouring of public indignation ensued when it became clear that the Indian Committee for Cultural Freedom, a local offshoot of the CCF, had accepted money from the CIA. The global spotlight cast upon some of the CIA’s more questionable activities had a profound and enduring impact upon Indian perceptions of the United States’ government and its external intelligence service. In the wake of the Ramparts scandal, the CIA came to occupy a prominent place in Indo–U.S. cultural and political discourse. For the remainder of the twentieth century, and beyond, anti-American elements inside and outside India drew repeatedly upon the specter of CIA subversion as a means of undermining New Delhi’s relationship with Washington.

Reviewed by: Technology and Naval Combat in the Twentieth Century and Beyond Michael H. Coles Technology and Naval Combat in the Twentieth Century and Beyond. Edited by Phillips Payson O’Brien. Portland, Oreg.: Frank Cass, 2001. ISBN 0-7146-5125-7. Figures. Tables. Notes. Index. Pp. xiii, 272. $54.50. This is a stimulating collection of essays by some of today's leading naval historians, divided into four sections: preparations for World War I, rearming prior to World War II, the Cold War, and preparing for the next war. Although the scholarship is of high standard throughout, the book is organized chronologically and by nationality rather than by technologies, and thus to some extent fails to deliver the promise of its title. Nevertheless, the diligent reader will find a number of technology-related themes appearing throughout the work, demonstrating how much commonality there is across time periods and nations in the key material factors that determine success or failure in naval warfare. Navies are extraordinarily expensive, and several chapters demonstrate that a nation's capability with respect to naval technology is largely a function of its economic strength. A vivid example of the naval/economic power relationship is Japan: the late David C. Evans shows how accelerated economic development prior to World War I enabled its navy to grow from insignificance to the world's third largest. Mark Peattie then describes how the same nation lacked the economic and technical strength to survive an extended war with the United States. Domestic politics also influence spending levels and thus adoption of new technologies: Paul Halpern describes how the Jeune École of the 1880s politicized French naval procurement. Arguably no navy has attained material superiority without first producing a politically powerful naval strategist. The book's success stories include Japan's Yamamoto Gombei and Togo, architects of the victory over Russia in 1905; America's Mahan; and Britain's "Jackie" Fisher, the latter's reputation being given a refreshing new look in a chapter by Nicholas Lambert that builds on earlier revisionist work by John Sumida. Others, such as Germany's Tirpitz and Raeder, were less successful; more recently, as Evan Mawdsley recounts, Soviet Admiral Gorshkov attempted the impossible when setting out to build a world-class blue water fleet on a third class economic base. Concluding chapters contemplate the future, including the continuing role of navies as important tools of diplomacy, although cost considerations [End Page 1026] will dictate fewer platforms and increasing use of design and manufacturing technology adapted from commercial production. Norman Friedman points out how new technology may dramatically change platform missions, as was the case with the Tomahawk's revitalization of the United States surface fleet. Books assembled from papers delivered at a conference often prove frustrating reading, and apparently this volume was the product of such a process, though this reviewer could find no reference in the text to a related academic gathering. Anyone with an interest in naval history will benefit from reading this book. However, its value would have been greatly increased had the editor done more to connect the accounts of developing technologies presently scattered throughout these excellent chapters, and provided the reader with an index that included some of the vital technical developments of the period, such as aircraft, turbines, radio and radar. It was also distressing to find him using more than once in a scholarly naval work the phrase "knots per hour." Michael H. Coles Shelter Island, New York Copyright © 2004 Society for Military History

Histories of American geographic thought and practice have sketched, but not critically explored, the relationship between war, intellectual change, and the production of spatial knowledge. This article sheds light on a crucial period, the middle decades of the twentieth century, when new modes of understanding and representing geography were being formulated at a variety of sites across the nation-state, from Princeton to the University of Washington. In particular, there emerged an altered conception of region, not as a descriptive but as a theoretical unit. This intellectual transformation, driven by an invigorated scientific imperative, was closely wedded to broader geopolitical conditions of war and militarism—to the demands for synthetic regional intelligence and new collectives of research that could adequately address complex technical and social challenges consistent with global influence. Moving from the formative hub of the Office of Strategic Services to the more diffuse but no less powerful structures of Cold War funding, we chart the emergence of a new regional model, inextricably linked and concurrent with the solidification of a world of strategic regions open to the exertion of American power, but also part of a remarkable emergent technoscientific complex at home.

Despite the demise of many landed estates in the twentieth century, the creation of the Forestry Commission and consequent massive afforestation, over two-thirds of British woodland remained in the hands of private land owners at the end of the century. Little research has been carried out into the changing role of landed estates in forming and maintaining woodland landscapes in this period. This paper examines forestry on the Thoresby estate, Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire using a wide range of sources. It demonstrates the dynamic nature of this landscape during the twentieth century. Rather than being a slowly changing woodland landscape, it has been transformed through interventions by land agents and landowners in response to changing social, economic and government policy pressures.

The profi le of the Assyrian Church of the East and its Uniate branch, the Chaldaean Church, has undergone monumental changes in the past twenty years as a result of the fi rst Gulf War waged in 1991 and the Allied invasion of Iraq that took place in 2003. Both offensives have resulted in great loss of life and have precipitated the massive displacement of the congregations. The Assyrians and Chaldaeans now sport sizeable diaspora communities in other parts of the Middle East, particularly in Syria, as well as in the West: in Europe, Australia and North America. The new trajectories that were already being forged at the beginning of the twentieth century, as a result of the break-up of the Ottoman Empire, have gained momentum in the twenty-fi rst century as the communities have responded to economic pressures, political turmoil and war. This impact has been felt particularly in Iraq. Whereas Christians in the late 1980s had constituted approximately 9 per cent of the Iraqi population (estimated at 20 million), the effects of sanctions in the 1990s coupled with the two Gulf Wars have led to a dramatic drop in numbers from an estimated 1.3 million in 2003 to between 300,000 and 400,000. 1 Christians account for an estimated 40 per cent of all people fl eeing Iraq to settle in diaspora communities. The Christian population in Syria has mushroomed following the arrival of thousands of Iraqi refugees, making demands on local resources, and with needs for housing, education and employment that are increasingly hard to meet in the escalating violence that has beset the country in the last few years. Displaced from their homeland, many refugees search for the stability and security that they see as only being available in the West. Paradoxically, events in the last decade have seen a return of some Assyrians and Chaldaeans to Kurdistan, a region from which many hailed in the early twentieth century before the vicissitudes of the Ottoman Empire forced them from their traditional homelands. Whilst the size of the Assyrian Church of the East’s communities in Iraq have waned, there is a massive growth of the Western diaspora now located in North America, Britain and Europe.

This chapter aims to examine the development of strategic planning from its origins in the eighteenth century through the Second War. It will not examine how different organizations accomplished the task, but rather the demands that strategy invariably has raised for strategic planners as well as the underlying reasons that have made strategic planning succeed or fail. In the end, competence in strategy and policy is the most important component in the success or failure in the conduct of war over the past 400 years. As the author and his colleague, Allan Millett, have noted about the first half of the twentieth century, “it is more important to make correct decisions at the political and strategic level than it is at the operational and tactical level. Mistakes in operations and tactics can be corrected, but political and strategic mistakes live for ever.”

Introduction The development of music and music education in modern China through the entire twentieth century was predominantly governed by the development of the nation in that same period. The political, social, and psychological changes that occurred in Chinese society at large within that particular period deeply influenced the development of music and music education. The Chinese musical heritage, a profound human cultural legacy, encompasses a variety of genres, a wealth of repertoire, and a style that is all its own. For thousands of years Chinese folk songs, operas, narrative music, and instrumental music--with their pentatonic tonal expressions--revealed and expressed the suffering, joy, and human nature of a people. This musical expression includes, among other things, tales about the Kunlun Mountain, the Yellow River, spectacular ancient wars, and the peaceful and quiet farming lives of the people. It tells stories or describes nameless sentiments through its own tone, its own mood, and its own attitude. It provides an aesthetic experience that is different from that of the music of other cultures in the world. Chinese music is unique because of its particular way of putting together musical sound patterns in compositions. Its musical foundations, elements, idioms, structural processes, and stylistic devices together form the compositional common practices that have been consistently recognized and understood by Chinese listeners throughout history. The knowledge of and ability to comprehendthese compositional common practices in traditional Chinese music is the Chinese music literacy. This music literacy is based upon a type of pentatonicism that is unique to Chinese music. The advent of the twentieth century brought not only the threat of European colonialism to China, but also saw an influx of Western culture that led to the development of a Westernized system of music education in China. The diatonic music of Europe has permeated and dominated the classrooms of modern China since that time. For the past one hundred years, music and music education in China have, in other words, been colonized by Western music. The Westernization of Music and Music Education in Twentieth-Century China The mid-nineteenth to early-twentieth century was a critical and difficult time for China, as the Qing dynasty tried to protect its heritage from the growing influence of Western missionaries, stave off European and Japanese colonization, and put down increasingly violent citizen revolts. Growing internal economic pressure, the Opium War (1839-1842), and the Boxer Rebellion (1900) all contributed to the downfall of the Qing Empire and establishment of the new Republic of China in 1911. It was a time of change between two centuries, two societal systems, and two cultures with very different values and tremendous misunderstandings. (1) When the Opium War ended in 1842, the British with their modern weapons had not only won the war, but also had blown open the closed doors of the Qing Empire. China now had to face the reality of dealing with the scientifically advanced cultures of Japan and the West. The Treaty of Nanjing (1842), in which China ceded the island of Hong Kong and granted unprecedented trade advantages to the British, was the first of a series of inequitable treaties the Qing government signed with Western nations. (2) The Boxer Rebellion, an officially sanctioned peasant uprising that attempted to drive out all foreigners, ended in 1900 with imperial leaders agreeing to more trade concessions and granting more control to Western powers who sought to carve up China into many colonies. (3) The Movement of Westernization and Educational Reform (1860-1911) The fear of being colonized led Chinese intellectuals and government officials to pursue self-strengthening through a movement of political and cultural reformation. These leaders agreed that China should learn from the West in order to fight against the West. …

BackgroundForensic anthropology has evolved significantly, from its foundations in the nineteenth century to its formal establishment in the twentieth century and in particular with modern advancements from the 1970s onward. Its role in human rights investigations during the 1980s in Latin America and the 1990s in the Balkans, exemplifies its global impact. However, the practice and application of forensic anthropology in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region remain underexplored. This study assesses the current status of forensic anthropology in this region through a brief literature review and online interviews with academics and practitioners in forensic anthropology or closely related disciplines. The interviews addressed the medico-legal system structure, forensic science capabilities, training efforts, practitioner availability, case types (medico-legal and humanitarian), and resources like radiological imaging.ResultsThe study revealed that forensic anthropology is largely underutilized in the MENA region’s medico-legal death investigation systems. Factors such as limited human capital, lack of discipline awareness, varying legal and procedural systems, and insufficient academic infrastructure hinder its integration. Challenges include political instability, safety concerns for practitioners, and inadequate resources. The study highlights ongoing efforts by practitioners to improve the field through theoretical and practical training, capacity building, and resource development.ConclusionThe findings underscore the need for strategic investments to strengthen forensic anthropology in the MENA region. Recommendations include enhancing education and training, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration, disseminating scientific knowledge, increasing access to resources, and revising medico-legal frameworks. These measures can bridge existing gaps and advance forensic anthropology’s role in medico-legal and humanitarian contexts.