Why Intelligence Fails

Published: June 14, 2024

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this. International politics, then, more closely resembles Rashomon, the Japanese fable in which each participant sees the interaction and the others in very different ways. (Location 4186)
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The Rashomon effect operates with a vengeance here because the other side’s behavior is based on an image of the actor that the actor will find disturbing and hard to grasp. The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in part because they thought the United States would be willing to fight and lose a limited war. (Location 4220)
The Rashomon effect and mutual intelligence failures were clearly at work in the Iraq case. In the previous chapter I explored Saddam’s fears and beliefs and stressed how hard they were for outsiders to grasp. In parallel, Saddam failed to understand the United States or predict what the Bush administration would do. This was not an aberration. (Location 4234)

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rw-book-cover

this. International politics, then, more closely resembles Rashomon, the Japanese fable in which each participant sees the interaction and the others in very different ways. (Location 4186)
- Tags: orange
The Rashomon effect operates with a vengeance here because the other side’s behavior is based on an image of the actor that the actor will find disturbing and hard to grasp. The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in part because they thought the United States would be willing to fight and lose a limited war. (Location 4220)
The Rashomon effect and mutual intelligence failures were clearly at work in the Iraq case. In the previous chapter I explored Saddam’s fears and beliefs and stressed how hard they were for outsiders to grasp. In parallel, Saddam failed to understand the United States or predict what the Bush administration would do. This was not an aberration. (Location 4234)