1st Edition

Time and Narrative in Intelligence Analysis A New Framework for the Production of Meaning

By Joshua Yaphe Copyright 2026
254 Pages 7 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

This book offers a new framework and set of standards for intelligence analysis, drawing from a variety of academic disciplines, such as philosophy, historiography, literary theory and semiotics. The US Intelligence Community is guided by a conviction that its practitioners are engaged in the scientific pursuit of fact-based evidence and its institutions uphold a set of tradecraft skills based... Read more

Part I: Quality and Standards  Chapter 1: Establishing a Framework  Chapter 2: Apartheid in South Africa, 1952  Part II: Theory and Practice  Chapter 3: Definitions of Intelligence Analysis  Chapter 4: Elections in Italy, 1953  Part III: Sense-Making and Signification  Chapter 5: Allowing for Subjective Experience  Chapter 6: Saddam Hussein’s Survival, 1992  Part IV: Narrative and Storytelling  Chapter 7: Reconceiving the Intelligence Cycle  Chapter 8: Sino-Soviet Split, 1949  Part V: Time and Historical Consciousness  Chapter 9: Objective and Subjective Time  Chapter 10: Cultural Revolution in China, 1966  Part VI: Bias and Empathy  Chapter 11: Understanding Intelligence Failures  Chapter 12: Juan Perón’s Argentina, 1955  Part VII: Humans and Algorithms  Chapter 13: Conclusion              

Biography

Joshua Yaphe is Senior Fellow at the Center for the National Interest in Washington, DC, and a regular contributor to its journal, The National Interest. He has a PhD from American University and served as Senior Analyst for the Arabian Peninsula at the US Department of State’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR).