Problems in the Intelligence-Policy Nexus: rethinking Korea, Tet, and Afghanistan
Author
Borer, Douglas A.
Twing, Stephen
Burkett, Randy P.
Date
2013-06-13Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Accusations of failure by elements of the US intelligence community (IC)
have followed in the wake of nearly every war and terrorist bombing since
Japan’s successful strike on Pearl Harbor in 1941. This article will illustrate
how some problems that exist inside the “intelligence-policy nexus” are
beyond the control of the IC. By investigating the dynamics and tensions that
exist between producers of intelligence (the IC) and the consumers of those
products (policy makers), we review three different types of alleged failure.
First, by revisiting the Chinese intervention in Korea, we show that a rarely
listed case in the literature is in fact a classic example of producer-based
failure generated from within the IC. However, in our study of the Tet
Offensive during the Vietnam War (1968), we show that the alleged
intelligence failure by producers should be more accurately described as a
“failure of intelligence” by consumers. Third, by revisiting the Soviet
invasion of Afghanistan (1979), we conclude that there existed neither a producer nor a consumer failure. The Carter Administration made a conscious
policy choice to act surprised (when it was not).
Description
The article of record as published may be located at http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02684527.2013.851875
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