Eamonn Gearon, "The Arab Bureau: The Story of Britain's Most Ingenious Intelligence Unit" (Hurst, 2026)

Eamonn Gearon discusses his new book on the Arab Bureau — the WWI intelligence outfit born from the disasters at Gallipoli and Kut, which tried to actually understand the Middle Eastern theatre rather than blunder through it. The conversation covers the Bureau's role in the Arab Revolt, its relationship with T.E. Lawrence, and the broader question of how intelligence failures drove institutional reform. A proper intelligence-and-war episode with real substance on British operations against the Ottomans.