Intelligence work and the longing for prewar order

Canaris's taste for risky intrigue is linked to fear on the German right after the First World War. Some Germans sought safety in an image of the prewar state and drifted toward the extreme right, even though the Bismarckian Germany they imagined differed from the political system that had actually existed. The comparison also explains the value of capable intelligence officers, whose work depends on information, contacts, allies, and careful handling of political risk. Canaris is rated as competent, with several Allied officers judged better. The wider lesson is that intelligence has little value when political and military leaders refuse to listen.