How are intelligence systems structured in countries across Asia and the Middle East—from Russia to India, from Turkey to China and Japan, from Kazakhstan to Saudi Arabia? In what ways did decolonization and the Cold War influence their organization? What is their mission, and to what extent do they come under public scrutiny?
The authors of this comprehensive reference delve into these questions, and more, to provide a unique, systematic survey of intelligence practices and cultures in 22 countries.

In my chapter on Palestine, I argue that in addition to living under the brutality of the Israeli colonial military occupation, Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip have had to (and continue to) live under additional layers of suppression created by their own national governing bodies and security forces. Thus, the Israeli colonial occupation and the Palestinian authoritarianism have created a police state in the making where multiple intelligence agencies function within a context that is fraught with fundamental contradictions and imbalances of power.