Strategic Intelligence (Intelligence and the Quest for Security Series)

While several fine texts on intelligence have been published over the past decade, there is no complementary set of volumes that addresses the subject in a comprehensive manner for the general reader. This major set explains how the sixteen major U.S. intelligence agencies operate, how they collect information from around the world, the problems they face in providing further insight into this raw information through the techniques of analysis, and the difficulties that accompany the dissemination of intelligence to policymakers in a timely manner. Further, in a democracy it is important to have accountability over secret agencies and to consider some ethical benchmarks in carrying out clandestine operations.

In addition to intelligence collection and analysis and the subject of intelligence accountability, this set addresses the challenges of counterintelligence and counterterrorism, as well covert action. Further, it provides comparisons regarding the various approaches to intelligence adopted by other nations around the world. Its five volumes underscore the history, the politics, and the policies needed for a solid comprehension of how the U.S. intelligence community functions in the modern age of globalization, characterized by a rapid flow of information across national boundaries.

While several fine texts on intelligence have been published over the past decade, there is no complementary set of volumes that addresses the subject in a comprehensive manner for the general reader. This major set explains how the sixteen major U.S. intelligence agencies operate, how they collect information from around the world, the problems they face in providing further insight into this raw information through the techniques of analysis, and the difficulties that accompany the dissemination of intelligence to policymakers in a timely manner. Further, in a democracy it is important to have accountability over secret agencies and to consider some ethical benchmarks in carrying out clandestine operations.

In addition to intelligence collection and analysis and the subject of intelligence accountability, this set addresses the challenges of counterintelligence and counterterrorism, as well covert action. Further, it provides comparisons regarding the various approaches to intelligence adopted by other nations around the world. Its five volumes underscore the history, the politics, and the policies needed for a solid comprehension of how the U.S. intelligence community functions in the modern age of globalization, characterized by a rapid flow of information across national boundaries.

Dan Blewett - Library Journal

This collection of 49 original essays edited by Johnson (political science, Univ. of Georgia) focuses mostly on how the 16 major U.S. intelligence agencies operate in the current dangerous environment of terrorism and globalization. Five topical volumes cover such issues as hidden bureaucracy, the intelligence cycle, covert action, counterintelligence, and accountability. Each essay gets its own chapter, averaging 15 pages in length. The first chapter is a useful "Introduction to the Intelligence Studies Literature," while other chapters discuss issues like economic espionage, women in religious terrorist organizations, and the challenges of intelligence analysis. Reference notes conclude each chapter, and the volumes end with their own appendixes, a glossary, an index, and biographical information about the editor and the 50 expert contributors. The appendixes range from "Categories of Finished Intelligence and the Major Products" to "Intelligence Oversight Act of 1980." While most other collections of this type are miscellaneous case studies or historical essays, this sturdily bound set is mostly about the present or very recent situation and about projections for the immediate future. It clearly conveys how politics and personalities adversely affect procedures and results. Appropriate for assigned course readings, this set will be of most interest to academic libraries, where it can complement the many specialized monographs already on the shelves. [Also available as an ebook.

LOCH K. JOHNSON is Regents Professor of Political Science at the University of Georgia. Author of several books on U.S. intelligence and national security, he edits the Praeger Security International Series Intelligence and the Quest for Security.