Strategic Intelligence

While several fine texts on intelligence have been published over the past decade, there is no complementary set of volumes that addresses the subject in a comprehensive manner for the general reader. This major set explains how the sixteen major U.S. intelligence agencies operate, how they collect information from around the world, the problems they face in providing further insight into this "raw" information through the techniques of analysis, and the difficulties that accompany the dissemination of intelligence to policymakers in a timely manner. Further, in a democracy it is important to have accountability over secret agencies and to consider some ethical benchmarks in carrying out clandestine operations.

Loch K. Johnson is Regents Professor of Political Science at the University of Georgia. Author of several books on U.S. intelligence and national security, he edits the Praeger Security International SeriesIntelligence and the Quest for Security.