Piracy and the Alliance Economy

[Darksider]

I like the idea that the Galactic Empire was 'stable'. The Galactic Republic survived as a ruling body in some form or another for thousands of years. The Empire didn't even reach the 3-decade mark before it was overthrown and the galaxy was torn with upheaval. How is that stability?

You've also gotta love the fact that it was almost designed to fall apart into various power-hungry factions desperate to grab as much power as possible upon the death of one man.

And TC pilot said the NR was designed to fail.

[TC Pilot]

I like the idea that the Galactic Empire was 'stable'. The Galactic Republic survived as a ruling body in some form or another for thousands of years. The Empire didn't even reach the 3-decade mark before it was overthrown and the galaxy was torn with upheaval. How is that stability?

The Empire's longevity has more to do with the active and conscious decision of Emperor Palpatine than anything else. It collapsed in an astonishingly short timeframe, facilitated by Palpatine's systemic configuration of the Imperial system, his active yet clandestine undermining from Byss and through proxies like Isard and Pestage, and his choice to remain hidden for six years rather than reveal himself immediately in order to further his plan of a Dark Side theocracy.

The Empire fell because the Emperor let it fall.

And yet, in the two and a half decades it remained largely intact and cohesive, the Empire was a complete about-face from the decrepit Old Republic, so rife with war and instability that whole member worlds could be invaded with impunity, the Senate clogged with corruption, and interstellar civil war raging on. Authority was centralized, worlds recovered and prospered so much so that they could be described as "luxury liner worlds", and the vast majority of the galaxy completely happy and supportive of the New Order. The Empire always stood for peace, order, and civilization in the face of chaos.

[Illuminatus Primus]

Palpatine had no choice but to wait to return. He was not reincarnated into a clone body successfully until a year after Endor, having spent months trapped and incapacitated having inhabited his Emperor's Hand, Jeng Droga, who was driven mad. Several sources - the Essential Chronology especially - detail that he had to recuperate from the experience.

[Darth Hoth]

A military lacking genuine major externalities to defend against has little to do except to play police and coup/rebellion suppression. See early Imperial Rome and China. The military is obviously minimalist compared to the relative expenditure of resources by nation-states in the international system today. And I'm not surprised they get rusty after 1000s of years just policing smugglers and the occasional peacekeeping mission. Oh, and war is just politics by other means.

In the days of the Exar Kun War, there had been relatively major military conflicts that were still in living memory. While this would perhaps not call for a full galactic-scale military, one would expect that there would be ships and combat-proven officers enough to suppress a single rebellious system. Especially when said system was even more "peace-fatigued" and primitive, used antiquated weapons and tactics down to literally fighting with swords and spears.

[Darth Raptor]

Palpatine had no choice but to wait to return. He was not reincarnated into a clone body successfully until a year after Endor, having spent months trapped and incapacitated having inhabited his Emperor's Hand, Jeng Droga, who was driven mad. Several sources - the Essential Chronology especially - detail that he had to recuperate from the experience.

None of that excuses the way he deliberately ceded Brentaal, Coruscant, and the entire fucking Rim. Having Thrawn assassinated, or by whatever comic book logic he thought the Imperial Civil War would be a good idea. Presuming his clones are even him, I can only conclude that his convalescence drove him stupid, and he is the sole party responsible for the fall of his own Empire. Unlike the analogues in our own history, it would have been best for Alexander to stay dead, even with the chaos and confusion of interregnum.

[Illuminatus Primus]

Palpatine had no choice but to wait to return. He was not reincarnated into a clone body successfully until a year after Endor, having spent months trapped and incapacitated having inhabited his Emperor's Hand, Jeng Droga, who was driven mad. Several sources - the Essential Chronology especially - detail that he had to recuperate from the experience.

None of that excuses the way he deliberately ceded Brentaal, Coruscant, and the entire fucking Rim.

So what? He reclaimed all of them in a year. So obviously it did not matter. Furthermore, if you were able to read, you'd notice he was completely incapacitated for a whole year. By this time Pestage's clone has been eliminated in a coup by the Emperor's Ruling Circle, Isard has already taken control of the Empire from the ERC, the outlying regions of the Empire have fragmented with the squabbling and ineffective leadership from Imperial Center, there has already been large scale warlordism as far inward as Corellia involving figures as lofty as the Galactic Emperor's own Grand Admirals, the Rebellion has grown into the conventional military threat of a competing state to the Empire controlling much of the Rim, and already successfully captured a significant Core World (Brentaal IV). It was too late at this juncture to avoid everything but Coruscant, furthermore, the Essential Chronology specifically it was not until shortly after Thrawn's death that he "finally recuperated" from his near-final-death at Endor. So he was totally unavailable until a year after Endor, and he could've been recovering and simply not able to manage a war effort for some time after that. He quite possibly had suffered the metaphysical equivalent of a stroke, and it would be years before he could directly control galacticopolitics. Pestage, Isard, Dangor, and his other loyal agents were working from contingency plans he'd developed before Endor (presumably in the event that he was incapacitated and the Rebellion decisively turned the war against the Empire). Its not as if Palpatine's rule when fully capable and aware was not at threat from coup attempts and assassinations, to say nothing of the nascent Jedi with Skywalker and the threat of the Rebellion and its sympathizers. There is good reason to wait it out if you are not able. And none of the factors you list had any meaningful impact; since Palpatine was able to reverse all of them in short order.

Having Thrawn assassinated, or by whatever comic book logic he thought the Imperial Civil War would be a good idea.

Did it prevent him from reconquering the entire galaxy in short order? No. The harm or benefit of an action must be assessed from its consequences and outcome. The outcome of having Thrawn assassinated and the Imperial Civil War was that Operation SHADOWHAND successfully reincorporated virtually all of the galaxy into the Galactic Empire perhaps short of scatterings throughout the Outer Rim and perhaps much of the Expansion Region.

Presuming his clones are even him,

They are him. Its an indisputable canonical fact.

I can only conclude that his convalescence drove him stupid, and he is the sole party responsible for the fall of his own Empire.

Why? The Empire was victorious on all fronts. The New Republic was on the verge of being totally diminished back into a guerrilla movement despite having held the "military upper hand"; the Galactic Empire had reincorporated nearly all its former territory was under capable leadership and command which had functioned even in Palpatine's absence (between the end of Dark Empire and part of the way into Dark Empire II).

It was only the pure luck that the Galaxy Gun misfired and that the misfire actually destroyed Byss, and that is what dealt the blow to the Empire from which it never recovered. Without pure luck, Palpatine would have won, or at least his Empire would've inherited history, even had it not included him.

[Ender]

Did it prevent him from reconquering the entire galaxy in short order? No. The harm or benefit of an action must be assessed from its consequences and outcome. The outcome of having Thrawn assassinated and the Imperial Civil War was that Operation SHADOWHAND successfully reincorporated virtually all of the galaxy into the Galactic Empire perhaps short of scatterings throughout the Outer Rim and perhaps much of the Expansion Region.

No. Comparing the New Republic after it fled Coruscant to a guerrilla movement is flawed as they were still able to fight a conventional war on a galactic level. They are more comparable to the Confederacy of Independent Systems who could fight on equal footing but were forced to move their high command from place to place. More importantly, just because you dodged disaster does not make what took place acceptable. You judge things on their potential and process as well as their outcome because those impact strategic readiness as well.

Had he not gone through with the Imperial Civil War the Republic potentially would not not have had the military upper hand - a rather damning indictment as the balance of forces plays a key role in limiting strategic options. Thrawn's assassination has debatable strategic value as the resulting retreat let the Republic overextend itself permitting the conquest at the expense of the disruption of a coordinated war machine (this question hinges on the extent of the infrastructure in the deep core whih is unknown), but the Imperil Civil War is inexcusable. It is on par with Nero ordering the repeated decimation of his guard when they failed after he ordered them to fight the sea. It devastated public relations, demolished much of the gained territory (negating its strategic worth), destroyed much of his state security apparatus and intelligence cycle, it brought about more fortress worlds which weaken the economy, morale would have evaporated, and it weakened his armed forces (increasing the advantage of New Republic at the same time). The last bit is the most criminally reckless behavior as the entire basis of Shadowhand was overwhelming force. Not behind the scenes manipulations like in his first rise to power, no brilliant strategic maneuvers like Thrawn demonstrated, no 4th column movements or economic domination like Isard and Zsinnj tried - he just hit them with wave after wave of ships, men, and material. The simplicity of his plans means he needed everything he could get.

More to the point, he let it go on in the middle of the campaign. The Imperial Civil War wasn't between the death of Thrawn and the return of Palpatine, and it wasn't after they reconquered everything. They took the core and fighting there broke out while he was still advancing into the rim. We see mas demonstrating this and Mon Cal was under siege. Not only were they fighting on thousands of fronts across space, but the now on millions of worlds they already had. Even worse it is tying up supplies as the geography of the galaxy is resulting in them spreading themselves thin.

The Imperial Civil War strikes me as evidence that Droga was not the only one driven mad by his and Palpatine's "special time" together. He thought it was a fine tool that strengthened his forces by purging the weak, but in reality Operation Shadowhand succeeded in spite of the Imperial Civil War, not because of it.

[Darth Hoth]

It was too late at this juncture to avoid everything but Coruscant, furthermore, the Essential Chronology specifically it was not until shortly after Thrawn's death that he "finally recuperated" from his near-final-death at Endor. So he was totally unavailable until a year after Endor, and he could've been recovering and simply not able to manage a war effort for some time after that. He quite possibly had suffered the metaphysical equivalent of a stroke, and it would be years before he could directly control galacticopolitics. Pestage, Isard, Dangor, and his other loyal agents were working from contingency plans he'd developed before Endor (presumably in the event that he was incapacitated and the Rebellion decisively turned the war against the Empire). Its not as if Palpatine's rule when fully capable and aware was not at threat from coup attempts and assassinations, to say nothing of the nascent Jedi with Skywalker and the threat of the Rebellion and its sympathizers. There is good reason to wait it out if you are not able. And none of the factors you list had any meaningful impact; since Palpatine was able to reverse all of them in short order.

How does this mesh with the dialogue evidence from Dark Empire about Palpatine, the "I gave [the Rebels] years to control the galaxy" bit in particular?

[Connor MacLeod]

I'd probably attribute the Civil War simply to Palpatines ever-increasing madness as time went on. At this point it got even more insane, and he became more obssessed with his religion more than with his Empire (which to him at this point was little more than a tool for progrgessing/furthering his Force studies.) Much like his screwups leading to Endor, his obsession with Skywalker a Second time, etc.

In the end, Palpatine was as much his own enemy as theRepublic/Rebellion was.

As for the Empire/Republic... "longveity" depends largely on the context. Technically speaking, despite wars and conflict, the Republic had largely existed in one form or naother for millenia.... or at least the memberships that made it up and formed the Senate had. The big places in the Core and such. But as a unified government? I suspect they had alot more trouble. We know the Old Republic was plagued for a LONG time by selfishness, special interest, corruption, and all manner of other problems. Likely, the Membership of the Republic resisted any attempts at unity because it would lead to interference, if not cessation, of their own little agendas or schemes. They probably didn't want a powerful central government with powerful forces, so they took steps to ensure it hasn't.

This may have kept things mostly peaceful, but it also kept them corrupt and encouraged further corruption and disintegration, and it allowed plenty of smaller, more "local" conflicts to erupt and go on unchecked (contained only by local navies of neighboring systems, I imagine, or by rare consensus and participation by the Senate and its forces.) I suspect that alot of the "stability" utlimately came about from the Force users.. first the Jedi (when they were very numerous at elast... more numerous than the prequel era.. anyhow) and later Palpatine and his force Lackeys.

If anything, Palpy is perhaps more remarkable for the fact he maintained the Republic's stability better than most did even if only for a few decades... and in sp ite of his own growing madness (and the way he set things up to deliberately self destruct later.. but we know he's a selfish fuck.)

[QuentinGeorge]

In the days of the Exar Kun War, there had been relatively major military conflicts that were still in living memory.

The ones in "living memory", and recounted at Odan-Urr's convocation, include the "Hundred Year Darkness", which happened 3,000 years earlier.

[Illuminatus Primus]

How does this mesh with the dialogue evidence from Dark Empire about Palpatine, the "I gave [the Rebels] years to control the galaxy" bit in particular?

There's no contradiction. He did give the Rebels years to consolidate the galaxy, regardless of whether that grant was intentional or involuntary. Either way its spite in the face of their incompetence. The fact of the matter is that Palpatine's resurgent Empire reclaimed all of its territory against a foe with the "military upper hand" in just about a year and a half, completely regardless of the losses to the Rebellion. The proof is in the pudding as they say, and Palpatine's skill as a strategic planner and social-political engineer is second to none, and this display is probably his most impressive ever. So if one regards him as "mad" by some definition, that's fine, but the point of fact is that his "big picture" results were as impressive as ever. The losses to the Rebellion, whether deliberate choice with alternatives existing (some of the assertions in this thread), or whether involuntary requirements (the implication of canonical sources), were not significant obsticles (though I agree the former possibility is needlessly imprudent and silly if true, though thankfully the canon offers us a sensible alternative). I think the frequent intepretation of DE Palpatine as being somehow different or lesser or whatever is typically in service to out-of-universe matters of taste on the quality and theme or plot of the DE comics themselves, and not in service to analysis under suspension of disbelief and harmonization of canonical sources.

MacLeod, could you detail the sources that document a "long-term" view of the Republic's dysfunction (presumably a large percentage of its longevity?)?

[Illuminatus Primus]

Did it prevent him from reconquering the entire galaxy in short order? No. The harm or benefit of an action must be assessed from its consequences and outcome. The outcome of having Thrawn assassinated and the Imperial Civil War was that Operation SHADOWHAND successfully reincorporated virtually all of the galaxy into the Galactic Empire perhaps short of scatterings throughout the Outer Rim and perhaps much of the Expansion Region.

No. Comparing the New Republic after it fled Coruscant to a guerrilla movement is flawed as they were still able to fight a conventional war on a galactic level. They are more comparable to the Confederacy of Independent Systems who could fight on equal footing but were forced to move their high command from place to place. More importantly, just because you dodged disaster does not make what took place acceptable. You judge things on their potential and process as well as their outcome because those impact strategic readiness as well.

The fact is that I said they were on the verge of disintegrating entirely and degrading back to a pre-Endor footing; the fact that the New Republic controlled any territory is not even attested, merely inferred from the fact that the Empire is not stated to control the Expansion Region and I believe they are only stated to have recaptured some or much of the Outer Rim. The New Republic had just a year and a half earlier held three quarters of the galaxy and essentially all of the Core Worlds; it was reduced now tenuously to regions of the fringe, and the Empire had seized territory completely enveloping their scattered holdings (the Empire controls much of the Outer Rim, essentially all of the Mid Rim, Inner Rim, and Wild Space, thereby controlling all territory around what of the Outer Rim the Rebels had left, and the regions surrounding the Expansion Region from all sides). The Empire has the strategic initiative, the campaign momentum, is successfully thwarting New Republic sieges and counterattacks, and controls all of the high population, high prestige, industrial and resource concentrations in the galaxy. It has strategic weapons the New Republic as of yet cannot respond to or defend against - it is incapable of defense in depth. The New Republic is stymied by the logistical and command and communications obstacles by being unable to operate from a formal capital, and must rely instead on ad hoc command posts and central communications hubs aboard lone cruisers in deep space.

Had he not gone through with the Imperial Civil War the Republic potentially would not not have had the military upper hand - a rather damning indictment as the balance of forces plays a key role in limiting strategic options.

Pure supposition. You have no idea what the relative balance of forces on either side of the Imperial Civil War was. Furthermore, in actual cost of the Imperial Civil War is unknown. The major impact of the Imperial Civil War according to available sources was that it traumatized and inflicted collateral damage to the Core Worlds. This hurts the New Republic's prestige - when it comes down to it, the New Republic is sanctimonious and claims to be the better power, but when they're unable or unwilling to help and the Empire is winning, the public is more likely to just sue for peace. The Empire has credibility when it comes to blood and iron, not the New Republic. For all we know, in terms of actual cost in blood to the Empire's war machine, it was quite limited, and its major purpose was to just eliminate those few parties to the Imperial reunification that Palpatine considered to be risks and incompatible with his war aims and plans. The Empire previously had not lost any war or campaign to the New Republic due to their talent and expertise - but they were vulnerable to fifth columns and mutiny. So he prudently cleans house before the final phase begins.

Thrawn's assassination has debatable strategic value as the resulting retreat let the Republic overextend itself permitting the conquest at the expense of the disruption of a coordinated war machine (this question hinges on the extent of the infrastructure in the deep core whih is unknown), but the Imperil Civil War is inexcusable.

The example of Thrawn was probably intentional. Palpatine clearly identified opponents and credible alternatives within the Imperial system as much more dangerous to his return than the New Republic, which was congenitally defective and weak. The Dark Side Sourcebook claims that "Thrawn should have known better" and Palpatine "was disappointed." It stands to reason that Thrawn may have known about Palpatine's contingencies for his incapacitation, or at the very least was given explicit instructions to obey his existing commands no matter what. Given that Palpatine is rebuilding a coalition and harmonizing disparate components of his former Empire - from rogue warlords and derived states, to the Empire "proper" of Isard, Dangor and Thrawn. The fact his instructions must be obeyed in detail would certainly be rammed home to those he had submitted to tests of loyalty would be definitely reinforced if he was willing to orchestrate the death of his favorite for disobedience. Furthermore, it also precipitates the first phase of the reclamation, as you point out.

It is on par with Nero ordering the repeated decimation of his guard when they failed after he ordered them to fight the sea. It devastated public relations,

So what? The public does not expect anything of the Empire when it comes to tests of fire; they do expect something of the New Republic. This weighs heavily against them. Furthermore, the decimation may have been only superficially random. Perhaps the ICW factions, being controlled behind the scenes by Palpatine, selectively targeted collaborators and sapient resources particular to the Republic.

demolished much of the gained territory (negating its strategic worth),

We don't know that; in fact the limited destruction of Metellos (mere billions of a full-scale ecumenopolis) suggests otherwise. Rather, the ICW and initial campaign restored the Core Worlds to the Empire, returning to them the political prestige, industrial centers, and resource hubs, while denying the main support base to the New Republic. The limited destruction drove away evacuees while it avoided wholesale slaughter. The net effect is to burden to already reeling New Republic with a massive region-scale refugee crisis.

destroyed much of his state security apparatus and intelligence cycle,

We don't know how many agents from either side of ISB and II were proscribed. And if the relations between Imperial Intelligence and Palpatine remained strong, I suspect that perhaps the proscription was not as random as it might have seemed, but a deliberate move to make an example of the disobedient and remove fifth-columnists or extremists who would not comply with his program.

it brought about more fortress worlds which weaken the economy,

Several possibilities here, the strategy could have called for hardpoints where industrial equipment and supplies could be concentrated and defended in depth, instead of attempting to defend the entire region as a whole. Though I thought this was wasteful as well.

morale would have evaporated, and it weakened his armed forces (increasing the advantage of New Republic at the same time).

We don't know how major the losses were. This is supposition.

The last bit is the most criminally reckless behavior as the entire basis of Shadowhand was overwhelming force. Not behind the scenes manipulations like in his first rise to power, no brilliant strategic maneuvers like Thrawn demonstrated, no 4th column movements or economic domination like Isard and Zsinnj tried - he just hit them with wave after wave of ships, men, and material. The simplicity of his plans means he needed everything he could get.

I disagree. Since it was a battle against an opponent with a superficial "military upper hand" - whatever that means, its just as possible that the New Republic intelligence apparatus poorly judged the balance of power or remained ignorant - which is highly probably considering the entire basis for Palpatine's resurgence were fantastic intelligence coups (hiding his enclaves, hiding the cooperation of the warlords and the ERC behind the scenes, reorienting the Empire's forces from Thrawn's front lines to staging areas in the Deep Core which the New Republic failed to notice even existed). Rather, it was a highly-effective blitzkrieg which totally overwhelmed the New Republic whose doctrine was simply unprepared for or incapable of waging total war. They had done asymmetrical war as the ARR fine, they did warlord neutralizing fine, but they're practice in total conventional war leaves much to be desired. Even the last campaign against Isard was a rather limited operation, and she actually deliberately gave them Coruscant, and the rest of the Core fell due to disorganization and political coup. The true genius of the contingency plans is they intentionally sabotaged the Empire to produce a Republic which had not been tested by fire and was not well-disciplined, a premature and deformed birth, if you will. Furthermore, the Dark Empire Sourcebook reveals that the Empire DID have plentiful fifth columnists riddling the bureaucracy of the New Republic. If anyone had access to them, Palpatine did.

Thrawn's "strategy" leaves much to be desired. He risked himself personally on the front, micromanaged individual operations' detailed planning by other operational commanders, and apparently did all the strategic planning in his head, so that after he died High Command could not due shit (thankfully, Palpatine did have a plan, and it did function swimmingly even when he was dead or unavailable or not publicly acknowledged). Most of his secret weapons were mostly psychological in value as their output was quite limited; the fact the New Republic was so vulnerable to these sleights-of-hand by a decisively inferior foe in strategic terms only underlines how the plans by Palpatine did not exactly have to toil uphill much against resistance. Isard's wrecking and left the New Republic fully dysfunctional and untested by genuine total war.

More to the point, he let it go on in the middle of the campaign. The Imperial Civil War wasn't between the death of Thrawn and the return of Palpatine, and it wasn't after they reconquered everything. They took the core and fighting there broke out while he was still advancing into the rim. We see mas demonstrating this and Mon Cal was under siege.

The ICW broke out briefly and ended more or less immediately after Skywalker was captured on Coruscant. It was another feint and plot - very Clone War esque - of Palpatine's. By the assault on Mon Cal, the Empire had already reformed a unified front.

Not only were they fighting on thousands of fronts across space, but the now on millions of worlds they already had. Even worse it is tying up supplies as the geography of the galaxy is resulting in them spreading themselves thin.

No, the Dark Empire Sourcebook quite clearly states the New Republic sat out the ICW, leaving the Empire to its own devices aside from little false-flag raids like the one by Skywalker's and Calrissian's Star Destroyer. They waited until the Empire reattacked following the re-reunification to resume general war stance, and ceded the strategic initiative to the Empire. I don't blame them so much, the Empire had stripped them of their tax base, their factories, their stores, their bases, and much of their bureaucracy and command apparatus. They were also politically humiliated, bloodied, and burdened by a region-scale refugee crisis.

The Imperial Civil War strikes me as evidence that Droga was not the only one driven mad by his and Palpatine's "special time" together. He thought it was a fine tool that strengthened his forces by purging the weak, but in reality Operation Shadowhand succeeded in spite of the Imperial Civil War, not because of it.

I am not like most people on this forum, I think we go for "the characters are stupid/incompetent/crazy/bullshitting" too quickly as an explanation. I try to give the story's basic plot and intent the benefit of a doubt when trying to come up with a comprehensive explanation and harmonizing of all sources. Palpatine was, in my opinion, the same Palpatine he was in ROTS and ROTJ in DE, though in DE2 and especially EE I think he's started to degrade.

[Finagle]

Thrawn's "strategy" leaves much to be desired. He risked himself personally on the front, micromanaged individual operations' detailed planning by other operational commanders, and apparently did all the strategic planning in his head, so that after he died High Command could not due shit

Overall an excellent analysis IP. The part above is the only part that I take some minor issue with. While I don't deny anything that you say about the shortcomings of Thrawn's strategy, I would like to point out that some of it is likely due to the situation in which he found himself.

I always felt that Thrawn led from the front lines specifically because he needed to inspire loyalty in his forces. Here was an alien coming in out of nowhere and claiming to be a grand admiral, when nobody knew anything about him having that rank, trying to take command of the entire remaining fleet. He had to prove himself to his men, and in his case leading from the front was one of the ways he achieved that.

I also thought that his micromanaging was at least partly because he had such limited forces at his disposal. With such a small military, I figured that he felt that every operation was vital, and that he needed to take a personal hand in as many of them as possible in order to ensure success. I also get the impression, though, that micromanaging is in his nature.

Doing strategic planning in his head and not letting even his most trusted people in on it - well that is clearly a character flaw. No excuse for that.

[Raesene]

I don't have my Specter of the Past/Vision of the Future books at hand, but I remember Moff Disra getting excited when Major Tierce revealed he found - and cracked the cypher of - Thrawn's notes for the campaign.

[Pelranius]

I thought Tierce was more interested in finding the Hand of Thrawn than actually about Thrawn's war plans. (Which went ten years into the future, IRC).

[Publius]

Yes, Moff Disra mentions having access to Thrawn's personal records in Specter of the Past, which included some details -- personal memoirs, the locations of clone sleeper cells, and "outline of a grand strategy" that were "incredibly detailed" and contained "his plans for the next five years' worth of campaigns against the New Republic." However, the very same scene establishes that Disra's possession of these records was extraordinary; they were certainly not readily available when he died, or Maj. Tierce would not have been surprised to hear that Disra had them. The fact that he wrote down his ideas in a private journal is for all intents and purposes the same thing as not sharing them at all; his subordinates did not have any access to his plans and did not know what he intended.

Other than his personal records, Thrawn's communications security was evidently scandalously lax, as the New Republic already had access to them within months of his death. In the Dark Empire Sourcebook, Maj. Arhul Hextrophon explicitly cites "what we have retrieved from Admiral Thrawn's notes" in a guest lecture at the Brionelle Memorial Military Academy, Chandrila, "shortly after the attack on Calamari." Perhaps it is for the better that Thrawn saw fit to consign his operational planning to his private diary rather than sharing it with any of his subordinates like a responsible commander might have done; had Thrawn behaved like a professional, his "incredibly detailed" plans for the next five years would have promptly ended up in the New Republic's hands.

[Pelranius]

Perhaps Thrawn kept his notes to himself so that Ars Dangor and the Ruling Council would find it necessary to keep him around? (If Dangor feels that Thrawn was becoming to popular, he might try to dispose of the Grand Admiral and replace him with a more pliable commander, which would be easier if the said commander had Thrawn's campaign plans. After all, its easier to continue the winning strategy rather than to change plans midcourse.)

[Illuminatus Primus]

Perhaps, but in this case, the reasoning is less important than the fact and the consequences. Furthermore, I wouldn't be surprised if Dangor was one of those in on Palpatine's machinations by that time.

[Raesene]

Thrawn didn't consider it likely he'd die at Bilbringi (slight overconfidence), and even in case of his death, he would be able to return as a clone. The cipher used could also be available above a certain rank - Pellaeon as a captain might not have had access to it, and with Shadow Hand starting, a flag officer with the right to read it might not have been interested anymore.

[Illuminatus Primus]

Thrawn didn't consider it likely he'd die at Bilbringi (slight overconfidence), and even in case of his death, he would be able to return as a clone. The cipher used could also be available above a certain rank - Pellaeon as a captain might not have had access to it, and with Shadow Hand starting, a flag officer with the right to read it might not have been interested anymore.

Heh, I like Publius' model for the Shadow Hand Strategy, maybe Palpatine's agents pilfered it and incorporated it into their model, along with the rest of its source material and database?

[Raesene]

Could be - Mara used certain codes during the rescue of Luke to access the Chimaera's main computer. The Emperor (and his agents) could have had remote access to any (relevant) imperial computer system.