Transforming U.S. Intelligence

The intelligence failures exposed by the events of 9/11 and the missing weapons of mass destruction in Iraq have made one thing perfectly clear: change is needed in how the U.S. intelligence community operates. Transforming U.S. Intelligence argues that transforming intelligence requires as much a look to the future as to the past and a focus more on the art and practice of intelligence rather than on its bureaucratic arrangements. In fact, while the recent restructuring, including the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, may solve some problems, it has also created new ones. The authors of this volume agree that transforming policies and practices will be the most effective way to tackle future challenges facing the nation's security.

This volume's contributors, who have served in intelligence agencies, the Departments of State or Defense, and the staffs of congressional oversight committees, bring their experience as insiders to bear in thoughtful and thought-provoking essays that address what such an overhaul of the system will require. In the first section, contributors discuss twenty-first-century security challenges and how the intelligence community can successfully defend U.S. national interests. The second section focuses on new technologies and modified policies that can increase the effectiveness of intelligence gathering and analysis. Finally, contributors consider management procedures that ensure the implementation of enhanced capabilities in practice.

Transforming U.S. Intelligence supports the mandate of the new director of national intelligence by offering both careful analysis of existing strengths and weaknesses in U.S. intelligence and specific recommendations on how to fix its problems without harming its strengths. These recommendations, based on intimate knowledge of the way U.S. intelligence actually works, include suggestions for the creative mixing of technologies with new missions to bring about the transformation of U.S. intelligence without incurring unnecessary harm or expense. The goal is the creation of an intelligence community that can rapidly respond to developments in international politics, such as the emergence of nimble terrorist networks while reconciling national security requirements with the rights and liberties of American citizens.

Jennifer E. Sims is a visiting professor with the security studies program at Georgetown University. She has served on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and in the Department of State as a senior intelligence officer. She has published a number of works on intelligence and arms control, including Icarus Restrained: An Intellectual History of Nuclear Arms Control, 1945-1960.

Burton Gerber had a distinguished career for 39 years, most of it overseas, as an operations officer in the Central Intelligence Agency. He served with distinction in some of the most challenging overseas posts, including as Station Chief in Moscow during the Cold War. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the recipient of CIA's Distinguished Intelligence Medal and other CIA honors. Mr. Gerber, at the request of U.S. Government agencies and other organizations, often lectures on ethics as related to public policy and intelligence. He is also a frequent guest lecturer with Georgetown University's Security Studies Program.