Failure of Intelligence: The Decline and Fall of the CIA - Hardcover

Melvin A. Goodman

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0742551105 ISBN 13: 9780742551107

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers (UK), 2008

Synopsis

The time for serious soul-searching regarding the role of the Central Intelligence Agency and the intelligence community in general is long overdue. The recent intelligence failures regarding the unanticipated collapse of the Soviet Union, the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the run-up to the Iraq war demonstrate a CIA and a $50 billion intelligence enterprise that cannot provide strategic warning to policymakers and, even worse, is capable of falsifying intelligence to suit political purposes. It will not be possible to reform the enterprise until we understand and debate the nexus between intelligence and policy, the important role of intelligence, and the need for an intelligence agency that is not beholden to political interests. The recent appointment of three general officers to the three most important positions in the intelligence community points to the militarization of overall national security policy, which must be reversed. The military domination of the intelligence cycle makes it more difficult to rebuild strategic intelligence and to provide a check on the Pentagons influence over foreign policy and the use of force. Failure of Intelligence is designed to inform such a debate and suggest a reform agenda.

In this timely and important book, the author offers a provocative mingling of historical description with contemporary political analysis and reform prescription that challenges the conventional wisdom on clandestine collection. The book ultimately and persuasively asserts that the failure to have diplomatic relations has led to the inability to collect intelligence.

About this title

About the Author

Melvin A. Goodman is a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy and an adjunct professor of government at Johns Hopkins University. He has more than forty years of experience in the CIA, the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, and the Department of Defense. He is the author or coauthor of six books, including Bush League Diplomacy: How the Neoconservatives are Putting the World at Risk (2004) and The Phantom Defense: The Case Against National Missile Defense (2001).

Edition details

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers (UK)
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0742551105
• ISBN 13: 9780742551107
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 400