2024/02/01 by Eunan O’Halpin · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Intelligence, Security, War Strategy
paper · pdf · doi:10.1177/02576430251314015
openalex publication_date 2024/02/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
Using the cases of two prominent anti-colonial activists, India’s Subhas Chandra Bose and Ireland’s Roger Casement, this article examines how British intelligence monitored separatist activities in the years from 1915 to 1945, particularly by intercepting and decoding the secret communications of other states. The failures of Germany, Italy and Japan to shield their wartime communications from interception and decoding placed both these patriots in mortal jeopardy. These resulted in the capture and execution of Casement, and of unequivocal orders for Bose’s assassination. The overall lesson is clear: great powers are no more competent at keeping secrets than are radical movements that look to them for assistance. The article also shows how concerned the British imperial authorities were about both of the possibility of transnational political and practical cooperation between anti-colonial movements and of the potential manipulation of such movements by their geopolitical opponents.