Introduction: The rise of the Joint Intelligence Committee -- Origins of the Joint Intelligence Committee -- World War III and the role of intelligence in strategic planning -- A post-war intelligence machinery -- Origins of the Soviet threat -- Sigint targeting -- The Berlin blockade -- Chinese intervention in the Korean War -- Estimating Soviet capabilities -- Counterinsurgency -- The Suez crisis -- The Cuban missile crisis -- Vietnam -- The Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, 1968 -- The rise of international terrorism in the Middle East -- Northern Ireland: direct rule -- The Falkland War -- Changing requirement at the end of the Cold War -- War in Iraq : weapons of mass destruction -- War in Iraq : aftermath -- The Joint Intelligence Committee and the National Security Council -- The Syrian civil war -- Through the looking glass : illusions of openness and the study of British intelligence -- Appendix: Chairmen of the Joint Intelligence Committee -- Document sources.