World War I and the Foundations of American Intelligence

World War I and the Foundations of American Intelligence PDF Author: Mark Stout
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
ISBN: 0700635858
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 398

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Book Description
Ask an American intelligence officer to tell you when the country started doing modern intelligence and you will probably hear something about the Office of Strategic Services in World War II or the National Security Act of 1947 and the formation of the Central Intelligence Agency. What you almost certainly will not hear is anything about World War I. In World War I and the Foundations of American Intelligence, Mark Stout establishes that, in fact, World War I led to the realization that intelligence was indispensable in both wartime and peacetime. After a lengthy gestation that started in the late nineteenth century, modern American intelligence emerged during World War I, laying the foundations for the establishment of a self-conscious profession of intelligence. Virtually everything that followed was maturation, reorganization, reinvigoration, or reinvention. World War I ushered in a period of rapid changes. Never again would the War Department be without an intelligence component. Never again would a senior American commander lead a force to war without intelligence personnel on their staff. Never again would the United States government be without a signals intelligence agency or aerial reconnaissance capability. Stout examines the breadth of American intelligence in the war, not just in France, not just at home, but around the world and across the army, navy, and State Department, and demonstrates how these far-flung efforts endured after the Armistice in 1918. For the first time, there came to be a group of intelligence practitioners who viewed themselves as different from other soldiers, sailors, and diplomats. Upon entering World War II, the United States had a solid foundation from which to expand to meet the needs of another global hot war and the Cold War that followed.

World War I and the Foundations of American Intelligence

World War I and the Foundations of American Intelligence PDF Author: Mark Stout
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
ISBN: 0700635858
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 398

Get Book

Book Description
Ask an American intelligence officer to tell you when the country started doing modern intelligence and you will probably hear something about the Office of Strategic Services in World War II or the National Security Act of 1947 and the formation of the Central Intelligence Agency. What you almost certainly will not hear is anything about World War I. In World War I and the Foundations of American Intelligence, Mark Stout establishes that, in fact, World War I led to the realization that intelligence was indispensable in both wartime and peacetime. After a lengthy gestation that started in the late nineteenth century, modern American intelligence emerged during World War I, laying the foundations for the establishment of a self-conscious profession of intelligence. Virtually everything that followed was maturation, reorganization, reinvigoration, or reinvention. World War I ushered in a period of rapid changes. Never again would the War Department be without an intelligence component. Never again would a senior American commander lead a force to war without intelligence personnel on their staff. Never again would the United States government be without a signals intelligence agency or aerial reconnaissance capability. Stout examines the breadth of American intelligence in the war, not just in France, not just at home, but around the world and across the army, navy, and State Department, and demonstrates how these far-flung efforts endured after the Armistice in 1918. For the first time, there came to be a group of intelligence practitioners who viewed themselves as different from other soldiers, sailors, and diplomats. Upon entering World War II, the United States had a solid foundation from which to expand to meet the needs of another global hot war and the Cold War that followed.

Bernard Brodie and the Foundations of American Nuclear Strategy

Bernard Brodie and the Foundations of American Nuclear Strategy PDF Author: Barry Howard Steiner
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 392

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Book Description
Steiner analyzes how and why Brodie's understanding of weapons of unparalleled explosive force led him to posit the need for revolutionary strategic thinking in broadminded analytic method and in the focus upon cities as nuclear targets. He shows the tremendous effect Brodie's work had on the intellectual climate in which policy is determined, particularly in his frequent combatting of conventional wisdom.

The Shadow Warriors: O.S.S. and the Origins of the C.I.A.

The Shadow Warriors: O.S.S. and the Origins of the C.I.A. PDF Author: Bradley F. Smith
Publisher: Plunkett Lake Press
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 488

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Book Description
This is an account of the nation’s first intelligence agency, the Office of Special Services (O.S.S.) — how it operated, what it accomplished, and how it laid the basis for the present Central Intelligence Agency — and how its charismatic founder, “Wild Bill” Donovan, established control over it, recruited its staff, and, most importantly, sold Roosevelt, the armed services, the Allies, and the rest of the country on the agency’s varied — and often bizarre — shadow warfare missions during World War II. The O.S.S.’s special relationship with the British, the key role of academics and its embarrassing connection with the Soviets’ N.K.V.D. are also addressed. Smith concludes that the creation of the C.I.A. after the war owed less to the accomplishments of the O.S.S. than to Donovan’s public relations skills and the precarious military situation the country found itself in at the time. “Mr. Smith... has done an exhaustive job of research on the O.S.S. and Donovan... the book offers an honest, lively portrait of an important American and the contributions, good and bad, that he and the O.S.S. made to the American intelligence system... Much of this book can be read for the pleasure of observing a genuine American character in action. Mr. Smith, who does not fawn on his subject, captures Donovan’s kinetic energy and vision.” — Philip Taubman, The New York Times “This may be as close to a definitive medium-length history of OSS as we are likely to get. It draws fully on the extensive original files now available (both American and British) and on the recent flood of secondary writing... The author has a sure grasp of the basic history of the war. His narrative chapters put OSS firmly into that wider context, and his perspectives and judgments ring true. And there are excellent chapters on the usually neglected Research and Analysis section and on the relations between OSS and Soviet intelligence agencies... an important book.” — Foreign Affairs “[A]lmost certainly the most balanced study to date of the ‘shadow’ or ‘irregular’ warfare that was the special province of OSS... Resting on an impressive amount of research into unpublished manuscript collections in both this country and Great Britain, [The Shadow Warriors] is a convincing account, in large measure because its author retains a balance in his conclusions even as he does not hesitate to render firm judgments.” — The Public Historian “Bradley F. Smith has produced a carefully researched, lucid study of... the Office of Strategic Services (OSS)... Smith deserves recognition for writing the most comprehensive study to date on the origins of United States central intelligence.” — The Journal of American History “Bradley Smith has undertaken a formidable task in writing this history of the Office of Strategic Services which is the most reliable record to date of its wide range of activities during the Second World War... an audacious book that is fascinating for its disclosures and entertaining to read.” — The Slavonic and East European Review “Bradley Smith... credits the OSS with accomplishments in support of the military, but considers shadow warfare dangerously overvalued... The book is... humanly interesting at the same time that it addresses the very largest moral and military questions.” — Kirkus

The Influence of the Carnegie, Ford, and Rockefeller Foundations on American Foreign Policy

The Influence of the Carnegie, Ford, and Rockefeller Foundations on American Foreign Policy PDF Author: Edward H. Berman
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 0791496503
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 236

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Book Description
This book examines the generally unrecognized role played by the Carnegie, Ford, and Rockefeller foundations in support of United States foreign policy, particularly since 1945. The foundations' efforts on behalf of American interests abroad have focused primarily on their support for a number of institutions of higher education in strategically located Third World nations. These institutions, modeled after foundation-supported American universities, were designed to train Third World leaders in norms that would encourage them—minimally—to assume a posture of neutrality toward American economic and political penetration of their societies. Dr. Berman's study challenges the oft-asserted, but undocumented, thesis of the American political right that these liberal foundations historically have pursued policies detrimental to United States interests. The evidence indicates how foundation policies and programs were formulated after close consultation with leaders of the American corporate sector and government officials, and how their activities were designed to further the objectives determined by those who influence the direction of United States foreign policy.

Anthropological Intelligence

Anthropological Intelligence PDF Author: David H. Price
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 0822389126
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 395

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Book Description
By the time the United States officially entered World War II, more than half of American anthropologists were using their professional knowledge and skills to advance the war effort. The range of their war-related work was extraordinary. They helped gather military intelligence, pinpointed possible social weaknesses in enemy nations, and contributed to the army’s regional Pocket Guide booklets. They worked for dozens of government agencies, including the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and the Office of War Information. At a moment when social scientists are once again being asked to assist in military and intelligence work, David H. Price examines anthropologists’ little-known contributions to the Second World War. Anthropological Intelligence is based on interviews with anthropologists as well as extensive archival research involving many Freedom of Information Act requests. Price looks at the role played by the two primary U.S. anthropological organizations, the American Anthropological Association and the Society for Applied Anthropology (which was formed in 1941), in facilitating the application of anthropological methods to the problems of war. He chronicles specific projects undertaken on behalf of government agencies, including an analysis of the social effects of postwar migration, the design and implementation of OSS counterinsurgency campaigns, and the study of Japanese social structures to help tailor American propaganda efforts. Price discusses anthropologists’ work in internment camps, their collection of intelligence in Central and South America for the FBI’s Special Intelligence Service, and their help forming foreign language programs to assist soldiers and intelligence agents. Evaluating the ethical implications of anthropological contributions to World War II, Price suggests that by the time the Cold War began, the profession had set a dangerous precedent regarding what it would be willing to do on behalf of the U.S. government.

Modern Sufis and the State

Modern Sufis and the State PDF Author: Katherine Pratt Ewing
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231551460
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
Sufism is typically thought of as the mystical side of Islam. In recent years, it has been held up as a supposedly peaceful alternative to the spread of forms of Islam associated with violence, an embodiment of democratic ideals of tolerance and pluralism. Are Sufis in fact as otherworldy and apolitical as this stereotype suggests? Modern Sufis and the State brings together a range of scholars, including anthropologists, historians, and religious-studies specialists, to challenge common assumptions that are made about Sufism today. Focusing on India and Pakistan within a broader global context, this book provides locally grounded accounts of how Sufis in South Asia have engaged in politics from the colonial period to the present. Contributors foreground the effects and unintended consequences of efforts to link Sufism with the spread of democracy and consider what roles scholars and governments have played in the making of twenty-first-century Sufism. They critique the belief that Salafism and Sufism are antithetical, offering nuanced analyses of the diversity, multivalence, and local embeddedness of Sufi political engagements and self-representations in Pakistan and India. Essays question the portrayal of Sufi shrines as sites of toleration, peace, and harmony, exploring cases of tension and conflict. A wide-ranging interdisciplinary collection, Modern Sufis and the State is a timely call to think critically about the role of public discourse in shaping perceptions of Sufism.

Encyclopedia of the Cold War

Encyclopedia of the Cold War PDF Author: Ruud van Dijk
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135923116
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 1076

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Book Description
Between 1945 and 1991, tension between the USA, its allies, and a group of nations led by the USSR, dominated world politics. This period was called the Cold War – a conflict that stopped short to a full-blown war. Benefiting from the recent research of newly open archives, the Encyclopedia of the Cold War discusses how this state of perpetual tensions arose, developed, and was resolved. This work examines the military, economic, diplomatic, and political evolution of the conflict as well as its impact on the different regions and cultures of the world. Using a unique geopolitical approach that will present Russian perspectives and others, the work covers all aspects of the Cold War, from communism to nuclear escalation and from UFOs to red diaper babies, highlighting its vast-ranging and lasting impact on international relations as well as on daily life. Although the work will focus on the 1945–1991 period, it will explore the roots of the conflict, starting with the formation of the Soviet state, and its legacy to the present day.

HENRY KISSINGER AND THE AMERICAN CENTURY

HENRY KISSINGER AND THE AMERICAN CENTURY PDF Author: Jeremi Suri
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674281942
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 369

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Book Description
What made Henry Kissinger the kind of diplomat he was? What experiences and influences shaped his worldview and provided the framework for his approach to international relations? Suri offers a thought-provoking, interpretive study of one of the most influential and controversial political figures of the twentieth century.

The CIA and the Politics of US Intelligence Reform

The CIA and the Politics of US Intelligence Reform PDF Author: Brent Durbin
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107187400
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 339

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Book Description
This book presents a thorough analysis of US intelligence reforms and their effects on national security and civil liberties.

American Foundations

American Foundations PDF Author: Helmut K. Anheier
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 0815704577
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 471

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Book Description
Foundations play an essential part in the philanthropic activity that defines so much of American life. No other nation provides its foundations with so much autonomy and freedom of action as does the United States. Liberated both from the daily discipline of the market and from direct control by government, American foundations understandably attract great attention. As David Hammack and Helmut Anheier note in this volume, "Americans have criticized foundations for... their alleged conservatism, liberalism, elitism, radicalism, devotion to religious tradition, hostility to religion—in short, for commitments to causes whose significance can be measured, in part, by the controversies they provoke. Americans have also criticized foundations for ineffectiveness and even foolishness." Their size alone conveys some sense of the significance of American foundations, whose assets amounted to over $530 billion in 2008 despite a dramatic decline of almost 22 percent in the previous year. And in 2008 foundation grants totaled over $45 billion. But what roles have foundations actually played over time, and what distinctive roles do they fill today? How have they shaped American society, how much difference do they make? What roles are foundations likely to play in the future? This comprehensive volume, the product of a three-year project supported by the Aspen Institute's program on the Nonprofit Sector and Philanthropy, provides the most thorough effort ever to assess the impact and significance of the nation's large foundations. In it, leading researchers explore how foundations have shaped—or failed to shape—each of the key fields of foundation work. American Foundations takes the reader on a wide-ranging tour, evaluating foundation efforts in education, scientific and medical research, health care, social welfare, international relations, arts and culture, religion, and social change.