Preface 1. Twenty-first-Century Intelligence: New Enemies and Old 2. Permanent Enemies: Why Intelligence Failures Are Inevitable 3. Theory Traps: Expertise as an Enemy 4. Incorruptibility or Influence? Costs and Benefits of Politicization 5. Two Faces of Failure: September 11 and Iraq's WMD 6. An Intelligence Reformation? Two Faces of Reorganization 7. Whose Knowledge of Whom? The Conflict of Secrets 8. Enemies at Bay: Successful Intelligence Notes Index
Combining study with experience, Richard K. Betts draws on three decades of work within the U.S. intelligence community to illuminate the paradoxes and problems that frustrate the intelligence process. Unlike America's efforts to improve its defenses against natural disasters, strengthening its strategic assessment capabilities means outwitting crafty enemies who operate beyond U.S. borders. It also requires looking within to the organizational and political dynamics of collecting information and determining its implications for policy. Betts outlines key strategies for better intelligence gathering and assessment. He describes how fixing one malfunction can create another; in what ways expertise can be both a vital tool and a source of error and misjudgment; the pitfalls of always striving for accuracy in intelligence, which in some cases can render it worthless; the danger, though unavoidable, of "politicizing" intelligence; and the issue of secrecy--when it is excessive, when it is insufficient, and how limiting privacy can in fact protect civil liberties. Grounding his arguments in extensive theory and policy analysis, Betts takes a comprehensive and realistic look at the convergence of knowledge and power in facing the intelligence challenges of the twenty-first century.
Richard K. Betts is director of the Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, and author of numerous books on military strategy and foreign policy. He has served on the National Commission on Terrorism, staffs of the Senate Intelligence Committee and National Security Council, and advisory panels for the Director of Central Intelligence.
[An] insightful book. -- Gregory F. Treverton The American Interest Betts' book provides a much-needed antidote. -- Paul R. Pillar Foreign Affairs
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