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The Changing Landscape of U.S. Intelligence

Mark Lowenthal, Jason Vest, Richard Weitz | World Politics Review | 2009-02-02

From the failure to prevent the attacks of 9/11, to controversial estimates on Iraq's WMDs and Iran's nuclear program, the U.S. intelligence community has been dragged out of the shadows and into the spotlight. President Obama inherits an intelligence community in transition. WPR examines the Changing Landscape of U.S. Intelligence.

The Recent Past and Future of Intelligence Politicization
By Jason Vest
How can we characterize the politicization of intelligence in the Bush years? And what are the portents for the integrity of intelligence in the Obama era? Before trying to answer those questions, it bears noting that neither the intelligence cycle nor the intelligence community has ever been immune from politicization.

Intelligence Collection in Transition
By Mark Lowenthal
The collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War added new transnational threats to the intelligence agenda. The result has been a growing complexity of collection problems that, combined with constrained budgets and aging collection systems, have left intelligence collection in a state of uncertain transition.

The Long Road Toward Intelligence Reform
By Richard Weitz
The changes to the U.S. intelligence community after the September 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States were perhaps the most comprehensive in five decades. Although the reforms achieved important progress in some areas, certain pre-9/11 difficulties have persisted and new ones have arisen.

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