National Security Intelligence
Secret Operations in Defense of the Democracies
3rd Edition
Published on 4. July 2024
549 pages
978-1-5095-6035-6 (ISBN)
Description
National security intelligence is a vast, complex and intriguing topic, made doubly hard for citizens to understand because of the thick veils of secrecy that surround it.
In the third edition of his authoritative introduction to the field, world-renowned intelligence expert Loch K. Johnson guides readers skilfully through this shadowy side of government. Drawing on over forty years of experience studying intelligence agencies and their activities, he explains the three primary missions of intelligence, before addressing the wider dilemmas of accountability posed by the existence of secret government organizations embedded in open, democratic societies.
Recent developments examined in this new edition include the dysfunctional relationship between the White House and America's secret agencies and fresh threats to democratic societies posed by authoritarian regimes. The new edition also offers, in two separate chapters, an expanded exploration of intelligence collection and analysis as well as new insights into covert action, from the use of propaganda and political operations to the overthrow of governments and assassination plots against foreign leaders. Throughout its pages, the book unpacks the ethical dilemmas of secret activities in the quest of global political and military objectives. It also gets to grips with the inevitable mistakes that are made in assessing world events; why some intelligence officers become traitors against their own countries by spying on behalf of foreign regimes; and how spy agencies can fall into scandalous behavior, including highly intrusive surveillance and harassment against the very citizens they are meant to protect.
Comprehensively revised and updated throughout, National Security Intelligence is a vital resource for anyone with an interest in how nations shield themselves against threats through intelligence organizations and operations, and how they strive for safeguards to prevent the misuse of this secret power.
In the third edition of his authoritative introduction to the field, world-renowned intelligence expert Loch K. Johnson guides readers skilfully through this shadowy side of government. Drawing on over forty years of experience studying intelligence agencies and their activities, he explains the three primary missions of intelligence, before addressing the wider dilemmas of accountability posed by the existence of secret government organizations embedded in open, democratic societies.
Recent developments examined in this new edition include the dysfunctional relationship between the White House and America's secret agencies and fresh threats to democratic societies posed by authoritarian regimes. The new edition also offers, in two separate chapters, an expanded exploration of intelligence collection and analysis as well as new insights into covert action, from the use of propaganda and political operations to the overthrow of governments and assassination plots against foreign leaders. Throughout its pages, the book unpacks the ethical dilemmas of secret activities in the quest of global political and military objectives. It also gets to grips with the inevitable mistakes that are made in assessing world events; why some intelligence officers become traitors against their own countries by spying on behalf of foreign regimes; and how spy agencies can fall into scandalous behavior, including highly intrusive surveillance and harassment against the very citizens they are meant to protect.
Comprehensively revised and updated throughout, National Security Intelligence is a vital resource for anyone with an interest in how nations shield themselves against threats through intelligence organizations and operations, and how they strive for safeguards to prevent the misuse of this secret power.
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07/2024
3rd Edition
Polity Press
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Book
07/2024
3rd Edition
Polity Press
€25.00
Shipment within 15-20 days
Person
Loch K. Johnson is Regents Professor Emeritus of International Affairs at the University of Georgia. He is the author of over 200 articles and thirty books on US national security, including National Security Intelligence, 3rd edition forthcoming from Polity in 2024. He served as special assistant to the chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (1975-76); as a staff aide on the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee (1976-77); as the first staff director of the Subcommittee on Intelligence Oversight, US House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (1977-79); and as special assistant to Chairman Les Aspin of the Aspin-Brown Presidential Commission on the Roles and Missions of Intelligence (1995-96). He has held the office of secretary for the American Political Science Association and president of the International Studies Association (ISA), South. In 2001, Professor Johnson led the founding of the School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA) at the University of Georgia.
Content
About the Author
List of Illustrations
Abbreviations
Acknowledgments
Preface to the Third Edition: Roadmap to a Hidden World
1. National Security Intelligence: The First Line of Defense
2. Intelligence Collection: Global Spying
3. Intelligence Analysis: Understanding World Affairs
4. Covert Action: Secret Attempts to Shape History
5. Counterintelligence: Guarding the Democracies
6. Safeguards against the Abuse of Secret Power
7. National Security Intelligence: Hidden Shield and Sword of the Democracies
Notes
Suggested Readings
Appendix
Index
List of Illustrations
Abbreviations
Acknowledgments
Preface to the Third Edition: Roadmap to a Hidden World
1. National Security Intelligence: The First Line of Defense
2. Intelligence Collection: Global Spying
3. Intelligence Analysis: Understanding World Affairs
4. Covert Action: Secret Attempts to Shape History
5. Counterintelligence: Guarding the Democracies
6. Safeguards against the Abuse of Secret Power
7. National Security Intelligence: Hidden Shield and Sword of the Democracies
Notes
Suggested Readings
Appendix
Index
Abbreviations
Every profession, including intelligence, has its abbreviations to ease communications among workers. A book on intelligence would be deficient without reference to this day-to-day language. An effort has been made to keep the acronyms in this book to a minimum, but occasionally they are included to provide a sense of how intelligence officers speak to one another within their organizations, as well as to avoid repeating long terms time and again. When these acronyms do arise, this glossary provides a ready guide for the reader.
- AI
- artificial intelligence
- ATC
- air traffic control
- CA
- covert action
- CAS
- Covert Action Staff
- CASIS
- Canadian Association of Security and Intelligence Studies
- CE
- counterespionage
- CHAOS
- cryptonym (codename) for an illegal CIA domestic spy operation against antiwar protesters in the 1960s and 1970s
- CI
- counterintelligence
- CIA
- Central Intelligence Agency (known by insiders as "the Agency")
- CISA
- Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (Department of Homeland Security)
- COCOM
- combatant commander (Pentagon)
- COed
- "case officered" (a CIA foreign recruitment term)
- COINTELPRO
- FBI Counterintelligence Program
- comint
- communications intelligence
- CNOs
- Computer Network Operations
- COS
- Chief of Station (the top CIA officer in the field)
- CTC
- Counterterrorism Center (CIA)
- DA
- Directorate of Analysis
- DBA
- dominant battlefield awareness
- DCI
- Director of Central Intelligence
- DCIA or D/CIA
- Director of the Central Intelligence Agency
- DDI
- Deputy Director for Intelligence
- DDNI
- Deputy Director of National Intelligence
- DDO
- Deputy Director for Operations
- DEA
- Drug Enforcement Administration
- DEC
- DCI Environmental Center
- DHS
- Department of Homeland Security; also, Defense Humint Service (DoD)
- DI
- Directorate of Intelligence (CIA)
- DIA
- Defense Intelligence Agency
- DNC
- Democratic National Committee
- DNI
- Director of National Intelligence
- DO
- Directorate of Operations (CIA), also known at times earlier in the CIA's history as the Clandestine Services and the National Clandestine Services
- DoD
- Department of Defense
- DoJ
- Department of Justice
- DS
- Directorate of Support
- DS&T
- Directorate for Science and Technology (CIA)
- DVE
- domestic violent extremist
- EIT
- enhanced interrogation technique
- elint
- electronic intelligence
- EPA
- Environmental Protection Agency
- FBI
- Federal Bureau of Investigation
- FISA
- Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act
- FISC
- Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court
- fisint
- foreign instrumentation intelligence
- geoint
- geospatial-intelligence
- GRU
- Soviet Military Intelligence
- HPSCI
- House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
- humint
- human intelligence (espionage assets)
- IC
- Intelligence Community
- ICBM
- intercontinental ballistic missile
- IG
- Inspector General
- imint
- imagery intelligence (photography)
- INR
- Bureau of Intelligence and Research (Department of State)
- ints
- intelligence collection methods (as in "sigint")
- IOB
- Intelligence Oversight Board
- IRBM
- intermediate-range ballistic missile
- IRTPA
- Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act (2004)
- IS
- Intelligence Studies
- ISI
- Inter-Services Intelligence (the Pakistani intelligence service); also, International Studies Association
- ITT
- International Telephone and Telegraph (an American corporation)
- I & W
- indicators and warning
- KGB
- Soviet Secret Police and Foreign Intelligence: Committee for State Security
- KJ
- Key Judgment (NIE executive summary)
- KSM
- Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the Al Qaeda terrorist said to have been the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks
- LC
- Library of Congress
- MAD
- mutual assured destruction
- masint
- measurement and signatures intelligence
- MI5
- British Security Service (counterintelligence)
- MINARET
- cryptonym for NSA warrantless telephone taps against Americans (pre-1975)
- MIP
- Military Intelligence Program
- MRBM
- medium-range ballistic missile
- MSS
- Ministry of State Security (Chinese equivalent of the CIA)
- MVE
- militia violent extremist
- NBC weaponry
- nuclear, biological, chemical armaments
- NCA
- National Command Authority
- NCS
- National Clandestine Service
- NCMI
- National Center for Medical Intelligence (DIA)
- NCTC
- National Counterterrorism Center
- NED
- National Endowment for Democracy
- NEST
- Nuclear Emergency Support Team (Energy Department)
- NFIB
- National Foreign Intelligence Board
- NGA
- National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
- NIB
- National Intelligence Board
- NIC
- National Intelligence Council
- NIE
- National Intelligence Estimate
- NIM
- National Intelligence Manager (ODNI)
- NIO
- National Intelligence Officer
- NIPF
- National Intelligence Priorities Framework
- NIP
- National Intelligence Program
- NOC
- non-official cover
- NPIC
- National Photographic Interpretation Center
- NRO
- National Reconnaissance Office
- NSA
- National Security Agency
- NSC
- National Security Council
- NSI
- national security intelligence
- OBE
- overtaken by events (CIA analysis)
- OC
- official cover
- ODNI
- Office of the Director of National Intelligence
- OLC
- Office of Legal Counsel (Justice Department)
- OPEC
- Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries
- osint
- open-source intelligence
- OSS
- Office of Strategic Services
- PDB
- President's Daily Brief
- PDD
- Presidential Decision Directive
- PFIAB
- President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (as of 2008, PIAB)
- phoint
- photographic intelligence
- PIAB
- President's Intelligence Advisory Board
- PM ops
- paramilitary operations
- PRC
- People's Republic of China
- PRISM
- Codename for controversial NSA sigint program targeting, without a court warrant, suspected terrorists - including some Americans (post-9/11)
- RFE
- Radio Free Europe
- RL
- Radio Liberty
- RMVE
- racially (or ethnically) motivated violent extremist
- SA Division
- Special Activities Division
- SAM
- surface-to-air missile
- SCIF
- sensitive compartmented information facility
- SDO
- support to diplomatic operations
- SecDef
- Secretary of Defense
- SFA
- Space Force Agency
- SHAMROCK
- cryptonym for NSA program to read international cables from and to American citizens (pre-1975)
- sigint
- signals intelligence
- SLBM
- submarine-launched ballistic missile
- SMO
- support to military operations
- SNIE
- Special National Intelligence Estimate
- SOE
- Special Operations Executive (Great Britain)
- SOG
- Special Operations Group (CIA)
- SSA
- space situational awareness
- SSCI
- Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
- STELLARWIND
- generic cryptonym for controversial NSA warrantless wiretaps and metadata collection programs (post-9/11)
- SVR
- Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation (KGB successor)
- techint
- technical intelligence
- telint
- telemetry intelligence
- TIARA
- tactical intelligence and related activities
- TOR
- Terms of Reference (for NIE drafting)
- 215
- Code number for NSA communications metadata program targeting U.S. citizens (post-9/11)
- UAE
- United Arab Emirates
- UAV
- unmanned aerial vehicle (drone)
- UKUSA Agreement
- a signals intelligence pact between the United Kingdom and the United States, signed in 1946 and later extended to include Canada (1948) as well as Australia and New Zealand (both in 1956) - the "Five Eyes"
- USCYBERCOM
- U.S. Cyber Command (an NSA co-agency)
- USIA
- United States Information Agency (Department of State)
- U-2
- CIA spy plane (with later Air Force Variations known as the A-12 and the SR-71)
- VC
- Viet Cong
- WHO
- World Health...
