On Intelligence: Spies and Secrecy in an Open World

by Robert David Steele

This book is about the reinvention of national, defense and business intelligence within the larger context of an open worlda world where "Evil Empires" and the Berlin Wall have fallenbut also a world where transportation, power, financial, and communications infrastructures are so open as to dramatically increase the vulnerability of America to trans-continental epidemics, anonymous information terrorism, and nation-wide power black-outs and financial melt-downs. As the world enters the Information Century, and simultaneously confronts the fragmentation of many nation-states and the emergence of widespread ethnic, tribal and criminal gang terrorism and confrontation, no topic can be more important to federal, state, and local governmentsand to international, national, and local businesses than the topic of "intelligence". Thankfully, there are many positive lessons and methods to be drawn from the U.S. Idrawn upon to make both government and business "smarter" about their environment, their customers, and their competitors. This book is a primer on the role of the intelligence Community, and there are a wealth of open sources and services that can be drawn upon to make both government and business "smarter" about their environment, their customers, and their competitors. This book is a primer on the role of intelligence qua sources, methods, and community at the dawn of the 21st century.

495 pages, Hardcover

First published April 26, 2000