IR 360: Intelligence and Intelligence Agencies

There is an increasingly rich literature on intelligence. The following are articles I have collected which may be of interest to students, particularly in doing the research project required as part of the course. Many of these readings are optional; others are part of the syllabus reading list.


Useful Texts (All are available in the Leonard Library)

Richelson, Jeffrey
A Century of Spies (New York, Oxford 1998)John Ranelagh The Agency:The Rise and Decline of the CIA, (New York: Simon and Shuster, New York 1996)

Loch Johnson
America's Secret Power, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989)

Loch Johnson
Secret Agencies: US Intelligence in a Hostile World, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996)

Abram Shulsky
Silent Warfare, (New York: Brassey's Press, 1993)

Allan Goodman,
Intelligence in the Post-Cold War Era, from In From the Cold: The Report of the Twentieth Century Fund Task Force on The Future of U.S. Intelligence, (New York: Twentieth Century Fund Press, 1996)

The Need to Know, Report of the Twentieth Century Fund Task Force on Covert Action and American Democracy, (New York: Twentieth Century Fund, 1991)

Gregory F. Treverton,
Covert Action: The Limits of Intervention in the Postwar World, (New York: Basic Books, 1987)

Roy Godson,
Dirty Tricks or Trump Cards: U.S. Covert Action and Counterintelligence (New York: Brassey's: 1995)

Daniel Patrick Moynihan,
Secrecy, The American Experience:
(New Haven: Yale University Press (1998)

CIA Suggested Intelligence Bibliography

An Annotated Bibliography of Intelligence Muskegum University


The Central Intelligence Agency for many years has published a scholarly "in-house" publication, Studies in Intelligence. Usually issued quarterly, it is --- alas --- classified, but for those fortunate to be cleared and on the subscription list it is widely recognized as an excellent view from the inside of American intelligence.

Fortunately, many articles have been declassified in recent years and can be found on the CIA's Center for the Study of Intelligence web site.


Articles from Studies in Intelligence, The Central Intelligence Agency, 1947-1997

Russ Travers, A Blueprint For Survival:The Coming Intelligence Failure
Frank Watanabe, How To Succeed in the DI: Fifteen Axioms for Intelligence Analysts
Robert Blackwill, An Interview with a Consumer
L. Britt Snider, Sharing Secrets With Lawmakers: Congress as a User of Intelligence
Anonymous, The Fall of Lima Site 85
Michael Donley, Cornelius O'Leary, and John Montgomery Inside The White House Situation Room
Kent Pekel, Integrity, Ethics, and the CIA: The Need for Improvement
R.V. Jones, Some Lessons in Intelligence
Anonymous, Of Moles and Molehunters
James S. Van Wagenen, Critics and Defenders:A Review of Congressional Oversight
Jack Davis The Challenge of Managing Uncertainty: Paul Wolfowitz on Intelligence Policy-Relations
Gus W. Weiss,Duping the Soviets
Operation Mincemeat


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