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Project on the Federal Budget and Budget Process for National Security and International Affairs
The interaction between intelligence and foreign policy is a complicated one, and much relevant information remains classified or incomplete. The U.S. intelligence community often gets the blame when there is a major foreign policy surprise or failure, and it then comes under intense criticism and study.
However, in many cases, the failure is mostly one of policy, not intelligence, and the interaction between the two remains murky. The ability of intelligence to predict surprise or influence policy is not always well understood. Nevertheless, the continued declassification of Cold War intelligence records and the publication of new books and articles by former intelligence and policy officials is shedding new light on the issue. Robert Vickers, a senior intelligence officer and visiting scholar, is encouraging research on the interaction of intelligence and policy on major past and current foreign policy crises.
“U.S. Intelligence and Foreign Policy” is managed by Robert Vickers, CIA Intelligence Officer in Residence at MIT SSP.
