Neville Wylie

‘The importance of being honest’: Switzerland, neutrality and the problems of intelligence collection and liaison

This paper seeks to contribute to a number of debates that have attracted scholarly attention over the last few years. Firstly, by examining the experiences of the Swiss foreign intelligence service, the paper takes issue with what one scholar has dubbed ‘intelligence history snobbery’; a process that has privileged the study of the major powers and overlooked the contribution made to the secret world by the intelligence agencies of small states. Secondly, the paper explores the extent to which a states engagement in the secret world is affected by its preconceived ideas over its place and standing in the international community. It asks whether the behaviour of a neutral foreign intelligence service is likely to differ from that of any other ‘small’ state, and whether neutrals can be both honest brokers in international affairs, and earnest players in the field of secret intelligence. The final section of the paper looks at the impact of the end of the Cold War and the emerging ‘global war on terror’ on the shape of the Swiss intelligence community.

‘An Amateur Learns his Job’? Special Operations Executive in Portugal, 1940–42

During the first years of its existence, Special Operations Executive looked to neutral Europe as an area in which it could deploy its limited resources against German interests with a reasonable chance of success. By early 1942, however, it was clear that neutral Europe had failed to live up to SOEs expectations. Most of SOEs plans had either been aborted or cancelled. This article examines SOEs work in Portugal between early 1941 and summer 1942. During this period, SOE not only failed to achieve any of its objectives but also suffered the indignity of having its station in Lisbon exposed by the Portuguese and was ultimately forced to withdraw its officer from the country. The article argues that SOEs lack of success was due not so much to the practical difficulties it encountered in the field, or even the opposition of other departments in Whitehall, which did so much to blight its operations elsewhere in Europe, but to its failure to create a sustainable role within British political and military policies towards Portugal.

‘Keeping the Swiss sweet’: Intelligence as a factor in British policy towards Switzerland during the Second World War

(1996). ‘Keeping the Swiss sweet’: Intelligence as a factor in British policy towards Switzerland during the Second World War. Intelligence and National Security: Vol. 11, No. 3, pp. 442-467.

The Korean War and the Post-war Prisoner of War Regime, 1945–1956

This paper examines the framework for the treatment of prisoners of war that emerged after 1945. It focuses on one of the key elements of the post-war prisoner of war (POW) regime, the role of neutral bodies – state authorities acting as ‘protecting powers’ or humanitarian agencies such as the International Committee of the Red Cross – in supervising the implementation of the 1949 POW convention. It examines the importance of neutral supervision for the POW regime, and shows how the events of the Korean War affected the willingness of states to comply with their obligations under the new convention.

Small powers in the age of total War, 1900–1940

Capturing this broad range of Canadian experiences was in fact Tennyson’s main objective and in this regard he did not disappoint. Using a set of key criteria – the item had to have been published; it had to reflect first-hand experience; and had to be written by a Canadian – he was able to compile a massive and richly annotated bibliography of 1885 entries from a wide range of global sources. In addition, Tennyson went a step further by not just identifying the publications themselves but also their authors, resulting in over 960 detailed biographies of writers being included in this volume. This far exceeds all previous attempts to conclusively list Canadian works, the most ambitious of which had included less than 80 entries. Tennyson’s bibliography is critically important to the study of Canada and the First World War for many reasons. It effectively puts an end to the persistent myth that Canadians did not produce substantial literature about its war experience or its own share of literary greats. At the same time, it also furthers the broader argument that our general understanding of the experience of the war would be different from the established narrative if scholars considered more evenly all sources, regardless of their literary quality, with greater equality. Tennyson, like many others, has rejected the notion of limiting his entries only to those that might be considered by literary scholars to be international classics. The result is a bibliography that is much more representative of the whole range of Canadian interpretation than more traditional works on the subject. Thanks to Tennyson’s incredible attention to detail and comprehensive scope, this volume provides an invaluable support tool for university and college libraries, museums, scholars and military professionals. Fully cited, cross-referenced and indexed, the author and publisher are to be credited for creating a work that is easy to navigate and employ. Whether consulting the works associated with a particular action, engagement, event or even particular author, readers will have little difficulty drawing out the entries they need. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, Tennyson has created a thoroughly enjoyable read, and through this publication has opened many new doors into the study of Canada’s experience of the First World War for this generation and those that follow.

Prisoners of War in the Era of Total War

The British Empire and Its Italian Prisoners of War, 1940–1947. By Bob Moore and Kent Fedorowich. Studies in Military and Strategic History. Palgrave. 2002. xi 227 pp. £60 boards. ISBN 0 333 73892 6. POWs and the Great War: Captivity on the Eastern Front. By Alon Rachamimov. Legacy of the Great War. Berg. 2002. xii 230 pp. £50 boards, £15.99 paper. ISBN 1 85973 573 8 boards, 1 85973 578 9 paper. Long Night’s Journey into Day: Prisoners of War in Hong Kong and Japan, 1941–1945. By Charles G. Roland. Wilfrid Laurier University Press. 2001. xxviii 327 pp. £17.99 paper. ISBN 0 88920 362 8. Japanese Prisoners of War. Edited by Philip Towle, Margaret Kosuge and Yoichi Kibata. Hambledon and London. 2000. xx 184 pp. £21.95 boards. ISBN 1 85285 192 9. Becoming a Subject: Political Prisoners during the Greek Civil War. By Polymeris Voglis. Berghahn. 2002. x 236 pp. £47 boards, £17 paper. ISBN 1 57181 308 X boards, 1 57181 309 8 paper. Prisoners of War and the German High Command: The British and American Experience. By Vasilis Vourkoutiotis. Palgrave. 2003. xi 202 pp. £50 boards. ISBN 1 4039 1169 X.

Ungentlemanly Warriors or Unreliable Diplomats? Special Operations Executive and ‘Irregular Political Activities’ in Europe

This paper examines the development of SOEs ‘irregular political activities’. It argues that SOEs approach to political warfare evolved considerably over the course of the war, partly as a response to changes in SOEs leadership, but primarily on account of its failure to carve a niche for itself within British diplomacy in Europe that did not ‘threaten’ the interests of the established government agencies in this area. Despite a recrudescence of its covert political work in the final year of the war, SOE was unable to persuade the political and military leadership of the benefits of conducting ‘irregular political activities’ in support of British diplomacy and as a consequence the legacy it was able to leave for Britains post-war operations in this area was a meagre one.

Introduction: Special Operations Executive – New Approaches and Perspectives

Readers of this journal might ask why there is a need to dedicate an entire issue to the study of the Special Operations Executive (SOE), the organization famously tasked by Churchill to ‘set Europe ablaze’ by means of sabotage and subversion. The answer would partly lie, I suggest, in the influence exercised by SOE in the history of ‘special’, or covert operations, over the last 60 years and in its role in shaping our understanding of this phenomenon. Despite falling out of favour in the final years of the Cold War, there has been something of a renaissance in the use of covert operations in international politics in recent years, not least those undertaken as part of the present ‘war on terror’. The vocabulary might be slightly different – with ‘regime change’ being the most popular of the current buzz-words – but the objectives, and even some of the techniques, have a distinctly older pedigree. An appreciation of SOE’s fortunes over the course of the Second World War has never been as relevant as it is today. There are, however, important academic reasons for wishing to consider anew the history of SOE. The study of SOE has undergone something of a transformation over the last few years. This is partly due to the passage of time and the ‘maturing’ process that takes place whenever any sizeable archival holding is released into the public domain. It is now over ten years since the first SOE files were deposited at the National Archives at Kew, London, and with the arrival of SOE’s personnel files, this process is now substantially complete. Quite naturally, the years immediately following the release saw historians rush to answer some of the abiding mysteries that clung to the name of SOE and which had steadfastly resisted attempts at explanation over the previous 50 years. Many of these studies, though necessarily cherry-picking at the archive, were remarkably good and earn their place in any respectable military history library. Nevertheless, it is only relatively recently that historians – and for the moment I exclude SOE’s ‘official’ historians – have been able to subject the archive to sustained academic research and complete long-term research projects on aspects of SOE’s wartime activities. It is no coincidence that three of the contributors to this collection, Roderick Bailey, T.C. Wales and Christopher Murphy, have all recently completed, or are about to complete, doctoral theses on SOE topics. More established historians – foremost amongst these E.D.R. Harrison, Mark Seaman and David Stafford – have also seized the

Problems of neutrality: Swiss diplomatic documents, 1939–45

Documents Diplomatiques Suisses/Diplomatische Dokuments der Schweiz/Documenti Diplomatici Svizzeri 1848–1945, Vol.13 (1939–1940), edited by Jean‐François Bergier and André Jäggi (with the collaboration of Marc Perrenoud). Berne: Benteli Verlag, 1991. cvii + 1098 pp. 6 annexes. Sw.Fr.150. ISBN 3–7165–0725–3. Documents Diplomatiques Suisses/Diplomatische Dokuments der Schweiz/Documenti Diplomatici Svizzeri 1848–1945, Vol.14 (1941–1943), edited by Antoine Fleury, Mauro Cerutti and Marc Perrenoud. Berne: Benteli Verlag, 1997. cxxxi + 1400 pp., 3 annexes. Sw.Fr.165. ISBN 3–7165–0849–7. Documents Diplomatiques Suisses/Diplomatische Dokuments der Schweiz/Documenti Diplomatici Svizzeri 1848–1945, Vol.15 (1943–1945), edited by Philippe Marguerat and Louis‐Edouard Roulet with Roland Blättler, Catherine Krüttli‐Tüscher, Marc Perrenoud and Maurice Peretti and Marie‐Jeanne Steiner. Berne: Benteli Verlag, 1992. cv + 1200 pp. 3 annexes. Sw.Fr.160. ISBN 3–7165–0843–8. Das Archiv für Zeitgeschichte und seine Bestände, edited by Klaus Urner, Marie‐Claire Däniker, Thomas Ehrsam and Claudia Hoerschelmann. Zurich: Neue Zürcher Zeitung Verlag, 1999. 360 pp. Sw.Fr. 40. DM52. ISBN 3–85823–763–9.

Review Article : Law and War

ance. There, the classical distinction between combatant and non-combatant has become increasingly obscure. ’Ethnic cleansing’ has moved the civilian population to centre stage. The numerous deaths and injuries amongst the civilian populations of all sides have not resulted from the unfortunate ’collateral damage’ of indiscriminate mortar, sniper, and artillery fire. Rather, civilians have been deliberately singled out as legitimate targets, in the hope that in such conditions a new ethnic map will emerge from the charred remains of the former Yugoslavia. All of the