Reshaping National Intelligence for an Age of Information

by Gregory F. Treverton

• ISBN13: 9780521580960
• ISBN10: 052158096X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-05-07
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

The world of intelligence has been completely transformed by the end of the Cold War and the onset of an age of information. Prior to the 1990s, US government intelligence had one principal target, the Soviet Union; a narrow set of 'customers', the political and military officials of the US government; and a limited set of information from the sources they owned, spy satellites and spies. Today, world intelligence has many targets, numerous consumers - not all of whom are American or in the government - and too much information, most of which is not owned by the U.S. government and is of widely varying reliability. In this bold and penetrating study, Gregory Treverton, former Vice Chair of the National Intelligence Council and Senate investigator, offers his insider's views on how intelligence gathering and analysis must change. He suggests why intelligence needs to be both contrarian, leaning against the conventional wisdom, and attentive to the longer term, leaning against the growing shorter time horizons of Washington policy makers. He urges that the solving of intelligence puzzles tap expertise outside government - in the academy, think tanks, and Wall Street - to make these parties colleagues and co-consumers of intelligence, befitting the changed role of government from doer to convener, mediator, and coalition-builder.

Table of Contents

Foreword	xi
Preface	xiii
Note on sources	xvii
The imperative of reshaping	1	(19)
Failing in India	3	(2)
The legacy of hot war and cold	5	(3)
Open sources vs. secrets	8	(3)
Puzzles vs. mysteries	11	(2)
Aiding war-fighters	13	(2)
The intelligence of policy	15	(3)
A guide for readers	18	(2)
The world of intelligence beyond 2010	20	(42)
Redefining America's interests in the world	20	(5)
Forms of power	25	(3)
Global processes	28	(7)
``New old threats''	35	(8)
``Threats without threateners''	43	(3)
The coming of the market state	46	(5)
Changing public and private roles	51	(3)
The intelligence of the market state	54	(2)
What kind of America?	56	(6)
The militarization of intelligence	62	(31)
What mission for intelligence?	63	(2)
Retargeting the Cold War legacy	65	(5)
Plus ca change, or forward to the past	70	(4)
Cold War reconnaissance: who controls?	74	(5)
National and tactical: new missions for old systems	79	(2)
NIMA: creating an imagery stovepipe	81	(3)
Which systems, at what cost?	84	(5)
Owned by whom?	89	(2)
Serving intelligence's national purposes	91	(2)
Designated readers: the open source revolution	93	(43)
America's Cold War intelligence	98	(4)
Intelligence for an age of information	102	(2)
Distributed intelligence?	104	(4)
Open sources and secrets	108	(5)
Learning to read: using open sources	113	(6)
Processing information, not secrets	119	(1)
Organizing for tactical support	120	(3)
The tactical franchise	123	(2)
And the strategic franchise	125	(2)
Addressing mysteries: national intelligence estimates	127	(2)
Doing well at addressing mysteries	129	(3)
Bringing outsiders inside	132	(2)
Estimating as process	134	(2)
Spying, looking, and catching criminals	136	(41)
The range of clandestine operations	137	(1)
Shaping America's clandestine service	138	(3)
Framing an assessment	141	(4)
The culture of spying	145	(5)
To spy or not	150	(2)
Reshaping the clandestine service ... in service of NSA?	152	(5)
Spying for money	157	(4)
Hiring lookers	161	(6)
Law enforcement	167	(3)
The Bureau and the Agency	170	(3)
The question of covert action	173	(4)
The intelligence of policy	177	(39)
Analysts and policy-makers	179	(6)
The messenger and the message	185	(6)
Questions not asked and not answered	191	(4)
Questions asked	195	(2)
The bright line	197	(5)
Commanders and assessments	202	(3)
Changing the culture	205	(3)
Challenging mind-sets	208	(3)
Erasing the line?	211	(2)
Intelligence for whose policy?	213	(3)
A reshaped intelligence	216	(41)
Retargeting the Cold War legacy	220	(5)
A new paradigm	225	(4)
The rise of the market state	229	(5)
The role of the DCI	234	(6)
The collection ``market''	240	(3)
The split franchise of analysis	243	(3)
Collecting what is free	246	(2)
Points of leverage: a practical agenda	248	(5)
Making the case publicly	253	(4)
Index	257