Spy Watching

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All democracies have had to contend with the challenge of tolerating hidden spy services within otherwise relatively transparent governments. Democracies pride themselves on privacy and liberty, but intelligence organizations have secret budgets, gather information surreptitiously around the world, and plan covert action against foreign regimes. Sometimes, they have even targeted the very citizens they were established to protect, as with the COINTELPRO operations in the 1960s and 1970s, carried out by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) against civil rights and antiwar activists. In this sense, democracy and intelligence have always been a poor match. Yet Americans live in an uncertain and threatening world filled with nuclear warheads, chemical and biological weapons, and terrorists intent on destruction. Without an intelligence apparatus scanning the globe to alert the United States to these threats, the planet would be an even more perilous place. In Spy Watching, Loch K. Johnson explores the United States' travails in its efforts to maintain effective accountability over its spy services. Johnson explores the work of the famous Church Committee, a Senate panel that investigated America's espionage organizations in 1975 and established new protocol for supervising the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the nation's other sixteen secret services. Johnson explores why partisanship has crept into once-neutral intelligence operations, the effect of the 9/11 attacks on the expansion of spying, and the controversies related to CIA rendition and torture programs. He also discusses both the Edward Snowden case and the ongoing investigations into the Russian hack of the 2016 US election. Above all, Spy Watching seeks to find a sensible balance between the twin imperatives in a democracy of liberty and security. Johnson draws on scores of interviews with Directors of Central Intelligence and others in America's secret agencies, making this a uniquely authoritative account.

Product Details :

Genre : Business & Economics
Author : Loch K. Johnson
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Release : 2018
File : 633 Pages
ISBN-13 : 9780190682712


Spies Lies And Algorithms

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A riveting account of espionage for the digital age, from one of America’s leading intelligence experts Spying has never been more ubiquitous—or less understood. The world is drowning in spy movies, TV shows, and novels, but universities offer more courses on rock and roll than on the CIA and there are more congressional experts on powdered milk than espionage. This crisis in intelligence education is distorting public opinion, fueling conspiracy theories, and hurting intelligence policy. In Spies, Lies, and Algorithms, Amy Zegart separates fact from fiction as she offers an engaging and enlightening account of the past, present, and future of American espionage as it faces a revolution driven by digital technology. Drawing on decades of research and hundreds of interviews with intelligence officials, Zegart provides a history of U.S. espionage, from George Washington’s Revolutionary War spies to today’s spy satellites; examines how fictional spies are influencing real officials; gives an overview of intelligence basics and life inside America’s intelligence agencies; explains the deadly cognitive biases that can mislead analysts; and explores the vexed issues of traitors, covert action, and congressional oversight. Most of all, Zegart describes how technology is empowering new enemies and opportunities, and creating powerful new players, such as private citizens who are successfully tracking nuclear threats using little more than Google Earth. And she shows why cyberspace is, in many ways, the ultimate cloak-and-dagger battleground, where nefarious actors employ deception, subterfuge, and advanced technology for theft, espionage, and information warfare. A fascinating and revealing account of espionage for the digital age, Spies, Lies, and Algorithms is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the reality of spying today.

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Genre : Computers
Author : Amy B. Zegart
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Release : 2023-02-28
File : 424 Pages
ISBN-13 : 9780691223070


The Ground Truth

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From the senior counsel to the 9/11 Commission, a mesmerizing real-time portrayal of that day, why we weren?t told the truth, and why our nation is still at risk. As one of the primary authors of the 9/11 Commission Report, John Farmer is proud of his and his colleagues? work. Yet he came away from the experience convinced that there was a further story to be told, one he was uniquely qualified to write. Now that story can be told. Tape recordings, transcripts, and contemporaneous records that had been classified have since been declassified, and the inspector general?s investigations of government conduct have been completed. Drawing on his knowledge of those sources, as well as his years as an attorney in public and private practice, Farmer reconstructs the truth of what happened on that fateful day and the disastrous circumstances that allowed it: the institutionalized disconnect between what those on the ground knew and what those in power did. He details ?terrifyingly and illuminatingly?the key moments in the years, months, weeks, and days that preceded the attacks, then descends almost in real time through the attacks themselves, portraying them as they have never before been seen. Ultimately, Farmer builds the inescapably convincing case that the official version not only is almost entirely untrue but serves to create a false impression of order and security. The ground truth that Farmer captures suggests a very different scenario?one that is doomed to be repeated unless the systemic failures he reveals are confronted and remedied.

Product Details :

Genre : Political Science
Author : John Farmer
Publisher : Penguin
Release : 2009-09-08
File : 342 Pages
ISBN-13 : 9781101152331


Spy Chiefs Volume 1

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In literature and film the spy chief is an all-knowing, all-powerful figure who masterfully moves spies into action like pieces on a chessboard. How close to reality is that depiction, and what does it really take to be an effective leader in the world of intelligence? This first volume of Spy Chiefs broadens and deepens our understanding of the role of intelligence leaders in foreign affairs and national security in the United States and United Kingdom from the early 1940s to the present. The figures profiled range from famous spy chiefs such as William Donovan, Richard Helms, and Stewart Menzies to little-known figures such as John Grombach, who ran an intelligence organization so secret that not even President Truman knew of it. The volume tries to answer six questions arising from the spy-chief profiles: how do intelligence leaders operate in different national, institutional, and historical contexts? What role have they played in the conduct of international relations and the making of national security policy? How much power do they possess? What qualities make an effective intelligence leader? How secretive and accountable to the public have they been? Finally, does popular culture (including the media) distort or improve our understanding of them? Many of those profiled in the book served at times of turbulent change, were faced with foreign penetrations of their intelligence service, and wrestled with matters of transparency, accountability to democratically elected overseers, and adherence to the rule of law. This book will appeal to both intelligence specialists and general readers with an interest in the intelligence history of the United States and United Kingdom.

Product Details :

Genre : Political Science
Author : Christopher Moran
Publisher : Georgetown University Press
Release : 2018-02-01
File : 330 Pages
ISBN-13 : 9781626165205


Broken Trust

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Variously and roundly perceived as gridlocked, incompetent, irresponsible, and corrupt, American government commands less respect and trust today than perhaps at any time in the nation's history. But the dysfunction in government that we like so little, along with the policy disasters it engenders, is in fact a product of that deep and persistent distrust, Stephen M. Griffin contends in Broken Trust, an accessible work of constitutional theory and history with profound implications for our troubled political system. Undertaken with a deep concern about the way our government is performing, Broken Trust makes use of the debate over dysfunctional government to uncover significant flaws in the conventional wisdom as to how the Constitution works. Indeed, although Americans strongly believe that our government is dysfunctional, they are just as firmly convinced that the Constitution still works well. Griffin questions this conviction by examining how recent policy disasters—such as the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the response to Hurricane Katrina, and the 2008 financial crisis—are linked to our constitutional system. This leads him to pose the question of whether the government institutions we have inherited from the eighteenth century are poor fits for contemporary times. Griffin argues that understanding the decline of trust in government requires investigating the historical circumstances of the last several decades as well as the constitutional experience of the states. In particular, he examines “hybrid democracy,” the form of constitutionalism prevailing in California and other western states that combines Madisonian-style representative government with direct democracy. Hybrid democracy offers valuable lessons relevant to our contemporary difficulties with dysfunctional government at the national level. These lessons underpin the agenda for reform that Griffin then proposes, emphasizing democratic innovations aimed at producing both more effective government and greater trust in our political institutions. Building on a better understanding of the sources and consequences of government dysfunction, his book holds genuine hope, as well as practical possibilities, for the repair of our broken political and constitutional system.

Product Details :

Genre : Political Science
Author : Stephen M. Griffin
Publisher : University Press of Kansas
Release : 2015-08-21
File : 216 Pages
ISBN-13 : 9780700621224


National Security Intelligence

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National security intelligence is a vast, complicated, and important topic, made doubly hard for citizens to understand because of the thick veils of secrecy that surround it. This definitive introduction to the field guides readers skilfully through this hidden side of government. It not only explains the three primary missions of intelligence - information collection and analysis, counterintelligence, and covert action - it also explores the wider dilemmas posed by the existence of secret government organizations in 'open' societies. With over thirty-five years of experience studying intelligence agencies and their activities, Loch Johnson illuminates difficult questions such as why intelligence organizations make mistakes in assessing world events; why some intelligence officers decide to work against their own country on behalf of foreign regimes; and how agencies succumb to scandals, including spying on the very citizens they are meant to protect. National Security Intelligence is tailor-made to meet the interests of students and general readers who care about how nations protect themselves against threats through the establishment of intelligence organizations - and how they continue to strive for safeguards to prevent the misuse of this secret power.

Product Details :

Genre : Political Science
Author : Loch K. Johnson
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Release : 2013-04-29
File : 246 Pages
ISBN-13 : 9780745675640


Adaptation Under Fire

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"Adaptation Under Fire looks at the essential importance of military adaptation in winning wars. Every military must prepare for future wars despite inevitably having little confidence about the precise shape that those wars will take. As former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates once noted: "We have a perfect record in predicting the next war. We have never once gotten it right." Despite this uncertainty, military organizations still must make choices. They must determine the nature of doctrine they will need to fight effectively, the type of weaponry and equipment they must procure to defeat their potential foe, and the kind of leaders they must select and develop to guide the force to victory. Since the U.S. military has global security responsibilities, it will have to make these choices without knowing when, where, or how the next war will unfold, nor even who the enemy may be. It will need to adapt quickly and successfully in the face of the unexpected in order to prevail. The book starts by providing a framework for understanding adaptation, and includes several historical examples of success and failure. The second section examines U.S. military adaptation during the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and explains why certain forms of adaptation have proven so problematic. The final section argues that the U.S. military must become more adaptable in order to successfully address the fast-changing security challenges of the 21st century, and concludes with some recommendations on how it should do so. "--

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Genre : Adaptability (Psychology).
Author : David Barno
Publisher : Bridging the Gap
Release : 2020
File : 441 Pages
ISBN-13 : 9780190672058


Leadership And Management In Police Organizations

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Built on a foundation of nearly 1,200 references, Leadership and Management in Police Organizations is a highly readable text that shows how organizational theory and behavior can be applied to improve the operations, leadership, and management of law enforcement. Author Matthew J. Giblin emphasizes leadership and management as separate skills in successful police supervisors and executives, illustrating to students how the two skills combine to improve individual and organizational efficacy in policing. Readers will come away with a stronger understanding of why organizational decisions matter and the impact research can have on police departments.

Product Details :

Genre : Social Science
Author : Matthew J. Giblin
Publisher : SAGE Publications
Release : 2016-09-16
File : 707 Pages
ISBN-13 : 9781506352268


Intelligence And Government In Britain And The United States

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Bringing a dose of reality to the stuff of literary thrillers, this masterful study is the first closely detailed, comparative analysis of the evolution of the modern British and American intelligence communities. Intelligence and Government in Britain and the United States: A Comparative Perspective is an intensive, comparative exploration of the role of organizational and political culture in the development of the intelligence communities of America and her long-time ally. Each national system is examined as a detailed case study set in a common conceptual and theoretical framework. The first volume lays out that framework and examines the U.S. intelligence community. The second volume offers the U.K. case study as well as overall conclusions. Particular attention is paid here to the fundamentally different concepts of what "intelligence" entails in the United States and United Kingdom, as well as to the nations' different approaches to managing change- and information-intensive activities. The impact of these differences is demonstrated by examining the evolution of the two intelligence communities from their inceptions prior to World War II through their development during the Cold War and the transformations that have taken place since, especially in the wake of the September 2001 terrorist attacks and 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Product Details :

Genre : Political Science
Author : Philip H.J. Davies
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Release : 2012-04-06
File : 539 Pages
ISBN-13 : 9798216103370


Intelligence In An Insecure World

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BOOK EXCERPT:

Security intelligence continues to be of central importance to the contemporary world: individuals, organizations and states all seek timely and actionable intelligence in order to increase their sense of security. But what exactly is intelligence? Who seeks to develop it and to what ends? How can we ensure that intelligence is not abused? In this third edition of their classic text, Peter Gill and Mark Phythian set out a comprehensive framework for the study of intelligence, discussing how states organize the collection and analysis of information in order to produce intelligence, how it is acted upon, why it may fail and how the process should be governed in order to uphold democratic rights. Fully revised and updated throughout, the book covers recent developments, including the impact of the Snowden leaks on the role of intelligence agencies in Internet and social media surveillance and in defensive and offensive cyber operations, and the legal and political arrangements for democratic control. The role of intelligence as part of ‘hybrid’ warfare in the case of Russia and Ukraine is also explored, and the problems facing intelligence in the realm of counterterrorism is considered in the context of the recent wave of attacks in Western Europe. Intelligence in an Insecure World is an authoritative and accessible guide to a rapidly expanding area of inquiry – one that everyone has an interest in understanding.

Product Details :

Genre : Political Science
Author : Peter Gill
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Release : 2018-10-08
File : 288 Pages
ISBN-13 : 9781509525232