SyllabusIR 360, Intelligence and Intelligence
Agencies
Spring Semester 2001
Room HSS 367 (Briefing Theater)
Thursdays 6:10-9:30 p.m.
Instructor: Ambassador David Fischer
The role of intelligence in foreign affairs
is little understood, even by students of international
relations. It is only in recent years that intelligence and its
role in formulating and implementing foreign policy has been
considered a legitimate subject of academic inquiry. Too often,
however, popular attention has focused on espionage and covert
action which, while important elements of intelligence, are
simply two sets of tools available to policy makers.
This course looks at the whole range of intelligence, how it operates in the modern world and seeks to debunk many of the myths and misconceptions about its role in the foreign policy process. Much of the materials used in the course are drawn from US and Soviet archives which have been declassified in the last several years. The course also features several guest lecturers who have served as senior CIA and KGB intelligence officers.
Ambassador Fischer has had extensive experience as a State Department officer in working with and overseeing US intelligence operations in the field and is especially qualified to discuss successes and failures of intelligence during the Cold War. Special emphasis is placed throughout the course on the policy-making process and the need for effective civilian oversight of US intelligence agencies.
Additional
Readings in Intelligence
Photographs
of Tools of the Trade
Eary
CORONA Satellite Photographs
VENONA: Intercepts and decryption of KGB and GRU
Operations in the United States (3.1
megabites and requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)