Keeping U.S. Intelligence Effective
The Need for a Revolution in Intelligence Affairs
By (author) William J. Lahneman
Publication date:
15 March 2011Length of book:
228 pagesPublisher
Scarecrow PressISBN-13: 9780810878044
Keeping U.S. Intelligence Effective: The Need for a Revolution in Intelligence Affairs explores whether the U.S. intelligence enterprise will be able to remain effective in today's security environment. Based on the demands currently being placed upon the intelligence community, the analysis concludes that the effectiveness of U.S. intelligence will decline unless it embarks upon an aggressive, transformational course of action to reform various aspects of its operations.
In keeping with the emerging literature on this subject, the book asserts that a so-called Revolution in Intelligence Affairs is needed. The need for a Revolution in Intelligence Affairs implies that no amount of evolutionary adjustments to existing intelligence community practices will keep U.S. intelligence effective. While evolutionary reforms might be necessary, they will not be sufficient to permit the intelligence community to target successfully the various threats and emerging issues that populate today's and tomorrow's security environment.
In keeping with the emerging literature on this subject, the book asserts that a so-called Revolution in Intelligence Affairs is needed. The need for a Revolution in Intelligence Affairs implies that no amount of evolutionary adjustments to existing intelligence community practices will keep U.S. intelligence effective. While evolutionary reforms might be necessary, they will not be sufficient to permit the intelligence community to target successfully the various threats and emerging issues that populate today's and tomorrow's security environment.
Lahneman is not optimistic about the continued effectiveness of the US intelligence community in the dynamic and complex security environment in which it operates today. The author notes that the intelligence community is still basically organized around the central task of "learning secrets" from a single, major, state-based threat, using technical means. It is not well situated to solve mysteries arising from multiple, widely dispersed threats of a non-state-supported nature. The contemporary security environment demands greater exploitation of human intelligence and open sources, areas in which the US intelligence community remains demonstrably weak. It is not that the intelligence community has simply refused to change since the Cold War but that the changes in methods and organization have been evolutionary while the changes in the security environment have been revolutionary. What is needed, according to Lahneman, is a "revolution in intelligence affairs." Whether such a revolution is forthcoming remains unclear, but the author's argument is well worth considering nonetheless. Recommended.