The secret state: a history of intelligence and espionage

Part one: Setting the scene. A little history

Part Two: On intelligence. Part Three. How intelligence works: the intelligence cycle. On direction: "What exactly is your intelligence requirement, Minister?" ; On collection

Part Four: On HUMINT and spies. Money: the Walker family's unusual business ; Ideology. Cambridge's famous Five ; Where ideology and ego mix: Ana Montes ; The one who got away: Melita Norwood ; Compromise/coercion. John Vassall ; Clinton and Pollard ; Joe Cahill ; Ego: Robert Hanssen ; The grievance: Penkovsky ; HUMINT in action: Werther and the Battle of Kursk ; On interrogation ; How Soviet HUMINT changed the world

Part Five: Technology takes over. On SIGINT ; The triumph of SIGINT: Midway ; On surveillance ; On technical intelligence ; Photographic reconnaissance ; Photographic reconnaissance in action: the Cuban missile crisis ; On satellites

Part Six: Information into intelligence. On collation: Vietnam and Tet offensive ; On interpretations: Yom Kippur ; Telling the user: Barbarossa and Stalin ; On dissemination: Pearl Harbor

Part Seven: On security. One who slipped through the net: Aldrich Hazen Ames ; The Avner Smit case ; The inadequate: Bradley Manning ; WikiLeaks and the appalling Assange ; Snowden, security and the surveillance state ; Strategic security: insecure from top to bottom: Singapore, 1941-2

Part Eight: On deception. D-Day

Part Nine: On terror. On terrorism ; Islam and the war on terror ; The greatest atrocity: 9/11 and the attack on the World Trade Center

Part Ten: On intelligence fiascos. The Sơn Tây raid ; Operation Eagle Claw ; Blair's dodgy dossier, Iraq 2003

Part Eleven: New horizons, new horrors?. On cyberwar: when is a war not a war?

Part Twelve: A dangerous trade. The secret war for ELINT ; USS Pueblo ; The attack on USS Liberty: with friends like this, who needs enemies? ; Disaster at Forward Operating Base Chapman

Will it ever get any better?