Intelligence Services in South Asia: Colonial Past and Post-Colonial Realities edited by Ryan Shaffer and ASM Ali Ashraf. Routledge, 2025, 227 pp.
Intelligence Services in South Asia: Colonial Past and Post-Colonial Realities is a compilation of essays edited by Ryan Shaffer and ASM Ali Ashraf. The book has 12 chapters (including an introduction and conclusion) written by different authors about different countries in South Asia. Each chapter compares the intelligence services of a country with its national history to observe how its past shapes the current culture and priorities. The countries of focus include Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Chapter 10 also includes a comparative analysis between India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.
The collection of essays does an excellent job providing the historical and geopolitical context from which the separate intelligence agencies evolved. The detailed analysis on specific countries is fascinating. For example, Chapter 5 by Abdulla Phairoosch opens with the Maldivian rulers using intelligence and covert action in statecraft as far back as the 1300s. The chapter breaks into five key sections regarding the development of the intelligence community in the Maldives: utilization of informants, strategic deployment against the United Kingdom, intelligence as a tool to stifle dissent, continued political influence, and intelligence’s key role in maintaining internal control. Whether it was local monarchs, British colonialism, or modern politicians, the intelligence services of the Maldives were primarily a “political weapon for those in charge, employed for internal control and against external forces to likewise maintain internal power (98).” As described in the first section, once an alliance with the Dutch in 1645 was established, “the greatest threat to Maldivian rulership was dethronement [. . .] recidivism, organized criminal activities, and the threat of invasion were virtually nonexistent (99).” The intelligence community of the Maldives developed in response to its domestic and colonial history which explains how it became a tool to consolidate power.
The book tends to focus on periods after the intelligence services underwent professionalization, limiting its scope, but also focusing the analysis on more modern institutions. This is reasonable given the relative lack of historical information on these pre-colonial intelligence activities and the limited size of each section. Each essay ought to be viewed as the starting point for a deeper analysis of the individual country’s intelligence community. The depth of citations also provides excellent areas for continued reading. Researching a specific country’s intelligence history would require reading an entire book dedicated to that nation, which would be difficult given the lack of literature on this subject, further highlighting the unique value this book provides.
The book not only analyzes individual countries but also provides key comparative insights into how intelligence agencies evolve. Chapter 10 uses Mahoney’s path dependency framework (186) to highlight that the differences in modern institutions can be traced back to “the relative power of civilian and military authorities in controlling the intelligence services (193).” The similarities stem from a common colonial structure, but the differences are connected to a critical juncture. Shaffer and Ashraf argue that the critical juncture was the 1947 partition of colonial India into India, Pakistan, and East Pakistan. Critical junctures present leaders with choices for the selection of national institutional structures that have significant effects on the performance, management, and oversight of intelligence services. The authors state that “India established a democratic state with the dominance of the chief executive and immediately formalized democratic governance [. . .]. In contrast, Pakistan chose a centralized military-bureaucratic model of governance (195).” The chapter goes on to explain these similarities and differences. While there can never be a perfect counter factual analysis, this common history and the identification of a critical juncture explain how shared colonial origins of the intelligence services still resulted in institutional divergence.
Readers from a variety of backgrounds will glean valuable insights from this collection. Intelligence professionals will learn about other nations’ histories which will benefit their own work. Historians will benefit from the colonial and post-colonial structural analysis and in-depth citations. Those working on the South Asian issues discussed in the book will benefit from the comparative analysis. Those working on national issues for countries discussed here will gain institutional insight. Even those simply interested in learning more about South Asia will see how particular institutions evolved to meet the nation’s challenges.
Ultimately, Intelligence Services in South Asia is an excellent compilation of essays regarding the development of spy agencies within the region. The book provides key insights into specific countries. While each essay serves as an excellent historical overview, there is only so much that can be discussed within a single chapter of a book—readers interested in learning more must use this as a starting point. Still, the cross-regional analysis furthers the understanding of the similarities and differences between individual institutions. This book represents a triumph of research in an understudied area by presenting readers with unparalleled opportunities for learning more about intelligence services, for studying institutional development, for working on South Asian issues, and for understanding the legacy of colonialism.
Vivek Thangam