Strategic Intelligence: [5 volumes]

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.

Table of Contents:
Volume I. Understanding the Hidden Side of Government Preface Tables Directory of All Contributors (Vols. I-V) 1. An Introduction to the Intelligence Studies Literature 2. Cloaks, Daggers, and Ivory Towers: Why Academics Dont Study U.S. Intelligence 3. Studying Intelligence: A British Perspective 4. Democratic Deficit Be Damned: The Executive Use of Legislators to Scrutinize Intelligence in Canada 5. Sources and Methods in the Study of Intelligence: A British View 6. Searching Where the Light Shines? An American View of Methods for the Study of Intelligence 7. The Challenges of Intelligence Analysis 8. The Intelligence-Policy Nexus 9. Sorting the Wood from the Trees: Were 9/11 and Iraq Intelligence Failures? 10. Intelligence of the Past; Intelligence for the Future 11. National Intelligence in the Age of Transparency Volume II. The Intelligence Cycle: From Spies to Policymakers 1. Whats Wrong with the Intelligence Cycle 2. The Challenge of Global Intelligence Listening 3. Intelligence: The Signals Dimension 4. Intelligence: The Imagery Dimension 5. The Importance and Future of Espionage 6. Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) 7. The Shortest Distance Between Two Points Lies in Rethinking the Question: Intelligence and the Information Age Technology Challenge 8. Intelligence Analysts and Policymakers: Benefits and Dangers of Tensions in the Relationship 9. The Customer is King: Intelligence Requirements in Britain 10. Global Economic Espionage: An Ancient Art, Now a Science 11. The Politics of Intelligence Postmortems Volume III. Covert Action: Behind the Veils of Secret Foreign Policy 1. Covert Action: Forward to the Past? 2. Covert Action: The Quiet Option in International Statecraft 3. Covert Action: The Israeli Experience 4. Such Other Functions and Duties: Covert Action and American Intelligence Policy 5. Covert Action: An Appraisal of the Effects of Secret Propaganda 6. Covert Action: An Appraisal of Political and Economic Operations 7. Covert Action and the Pentagon 8. Covert Action and Diplomacy 9. From Cold War to Long War: Covert Action in U.S. Legal Context Volume IV. Counterintelligence and Counterterrorism: Defending the Nation Against Hostile Forces 1. Definitions and Theories of Counterintelligence 2. VENONA and Cold War Counterintelligence Methodology 3. Catching Spies in the United States 4. The Successes and Failures of FBI Counterintelligence 5. The Idea of a European FBI 6. Washington Politics, Intelligence, and the Struggle Against Global Terrorism 7. The Intelligence War Against Global Terrorism 8. The Goal of All-Source Fusion in the War Against Terrorism 9. Women in Religious Terrorist Organizations: A Comparative Analysis Volume V. Intelligence and Accountability: Safeguards Against the Abuse of Secret Power 1. Congressional Oversight of the CIA in the Early Cold War, 1947-1963 2. Intelligence Oversight: The Church Committee 3. A Conversation with Former DCI William E. Colby: Spymaster in the Year of the Intelligence Wars 4. The British Experience with Intelligence Accountability 5. Documentary Evidence for Differences Between American and British Approaches to Intelligence 6. More Perfect Oversight: Intelligence Oversight and Reform 7. A Comparative Perspective on Accountability 8. The Coin of Intelligence Accountability 9. A Half Century of Spy Watching

About the Author :
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.

Review :
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….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] The books provide an excellent reference for students of the military, political affairs, foreign policy, or strategic planning. The supporting notes at the end of each chapter are especially helpful and should not be overlooked by the reader. College-level specialty collections strong in military and political studies of foreign policy and strategy will find essential the in-depth, five-volume set Strategic Intelligence: Understanding the Hidden Side of Government. Here's a comprehensive survey of how the sixteen major U.S. intelligence agencies operate, how they collect information from around the world, and how they meet special challenges. Chapters analyze the intelligence community and both overt and covert actions, examining different approaches to intelligence and its management and policies and including a concurrent history of the politics and policies of the community. No serious college-level or specialty military collection should be without this in-depth reference. Johnson brings together contributors from academia, intelligence agencies and other government organizations, think tanks, and the legal professions for this five-volume overview of the current status of the field of intelligence studies.