Kautilya-Machiavelli Perspectives on Statecraft

The Kautilya–Machiavelli Perspectives on Statecraft (KMPS) is dedicated to advancing rigorous scholarship on geopolitics, grand strategy and the practice of statecraft. Inspired by the enduring intellectual legacies of Kautilya and Machiavelli, the series brings together policy-relevant research grounded in strategic realism while encouraging original thinking. Through concise Issue Briefs, Strategic Insights, Policy Papers and other scholarly contributions, KMPS seeks to foster informed debate and provide scholars and practitioners with timely insights into contemporary challenges in international affairs and strategic decision-making.

National Security Intelligence assists governments in gathering, processing and analysing intelligence on threats and opportunities, but each step of the intelligence cycle — planning, collection, processing, analysis and dissemination — carries its own risk of failure, from data overload to the politicisation of findings. Drawing on episodes such as Operation CHAOS, Iran-Contra, 9/11 and the Iraq WMD assessment, this Strategic Insight argues that robust oversight is essential to guard against the abuse of intelligence powers even as it acknowledges the inherent limits of what intelligence can achieve.

Kautilya-Machiavelli Perspectives on Statecraft

The Challenges of National Security Intelligence: An Encapsulation