Publisher's Synopsis
This anthology, "Intelligence Management in the Americas," brings together the perspectives of 22 authors from across the Americas. They outline and assess the status and promise of intelligence oversight legislation and actions, and develop various arguments for preserving the best aspects of intelligence autonomy. In any country, intelligence institutions by definition form a first line of defense to protect citizens and their system of government. This book centers on strategic intelligence, a function whose purpose is to identify national-level threats, risks, and opportunities with respect to state security and public or citizen security. Since the 1980s, responsibility for the management of a good part of state intelligence in the Americas has shifted from the hands of military and police establishments toward systems or communities with greater participation by civilians. Civilian intelligence entities specialize in addressing particular state needs and bring integrated attention to all the issues that might affect a country's national interests, including internal security. Adequate intelligence management now depends on the development of professional ethics, in addition to public intelligence laws and judicial oversight, to provide adequate supervision and control over intelligence activity. This book addresses the present and future context for managing the intelligence function in the Western Hemisphere. This purpose obligates the authors to identify, highlight, and analyze the post-Cold War path of intelligence management, and to recognize successful experiments in its application. Authors consider the political, social, technological, and economic environments where this cognitive and operational discipline makes it mark.
