Title
Bombs, Bugs, Drugs, and Thugs : Intelligence and America's Quest for Security / Loch K. Johnson.
ISBN
9780814771730
Published
New York, NY : : New York University Press, [2002]
Copyright
©2002
Language
English
Language Note
In English.
Description
1 online resource
Item Number
10.18574/nyu/9780814771730.001.0001 doi
Call Number
JK468.I6 J634 2002
Dewey Decimal Classification
327.1273
Summary
Recent years have seen numerous books about the looming threat posed to Western society by biological and chemical terrorism, by narcoterrorists, and by the unpredictable leaders of rogue nations. Some of these works have been alarmist. Some have been sensible and measured. But none has been by Loch Johnson. Johnson, author of the acclaimed Secret Agencies and "an experienced overseer of intelligence" (Foreign Affairs), here examines the present state and future challenges of American strategic intelligence. Written in his trademark style--dubbed "highly readable" by Publishers Weekly--and drawing on dozens of personal interviews and contacts, Johnson takes advantage of his insider access to explore how America today aspires to achieve nothing less than "global transparency," ferreting out information on potential dangers in every corner of the world. And yet the American security establishment, for all its formidable resources, technology, and networks, currently remains a loose federation of individual fortresses, rather than a well integrated "community" of agencies working together to provide the President with accurate information on foreign threats and opportunities. Intelligence failure, like the misidentified Chinese embassy in Belgrade accidentally bombed by a NATO pilot, is the inevitable outcome when the nation's thirteen secret agencies steadfastly resist the need for central coordination. Ranging widely and boldly over such controversial topics as the intelligence role of the United Nations (which Johnson believes should be expanded) and whether assassination should be a part of America's foreign policy (an option he rejects for fear that the U.S. would then be cast not only as global policeman but also as global godfather), Loch K. Johnson here maps out a critical and prescriptive vision of the future of American intelligence.
Access Note
Access limited to authorized users.
System Details Note
Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
Digital File Characteristics
text file PDF
Source of Description
Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 18. Sep 2023)
Frontmatter
CONTENTS
A New Preface by the Author
Preface
List of Figures
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
PART I : An Intelligence Agenda for a New World
1. A Planet Bristling with Bombs and Missiles
2. Stocks and (James) Bonds: Spies in the Global Marketplace
3. The Greening of Intelligence
4. Spies versus Germs: A Worldwide Resurgence of Bugs
PART II: Strategic Intelligence: Fissures in the First Line of Defense
5. The DCI and the Eight-Hundred-Pound Gorilla
6. Spending for Spies
7. Sharing the Intelligence Burden
PART III: Smart Intelligence-and Accountable
8. More Intelligent Intelligence
9. Balancing Liberty and Security
Appendix: America's Intelligence Leadership, 1941-2000
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
