From Art of Reconnaissance to the Yellow Book: British Military Intelligence, 1902-1915

The Second South African War contributed to a period of introspection and reform within the British army. This article explores the ways in which the army adapted its operational intelligence doctrine between that conflict and the outbreak of the First World War. In so doing, it explores the emergence of modern military intelligence. It concludes that this period refined the pre-existing reconnaissance model of intelligence and that it required the shock of trench warfare to truly transform the discipline.