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Review
Mark Lowenthal’s Intelligence: From Secrets to Policy, now in its fourth edition, is the go-to book for the most comprehensive overview on the U.S. intelligence community. Intelligence processes, policy, and organization are clearly and concisely described, providing those who study intelligence with a complete picture of the IC and its relationship with the executive and legislative branches to date in the evolving, dynamic and highly politicized post-9/11 world of intelligence. I highly recommend this book to academics and practitioners alike! It is a great resource (Michael Bennett )
Since 9/11, much attention within the United States and abroad has been focused on the problems within the intelligence community. Lowenthal’s book offers a superior framework for understanding the structure of the intelligence community and the challenges it faces. The fourth edition will bring new insights into some of the most current controversies involving the intelligence community and U.S. policymakers--such as the Valerie Plame case and the ‘Curveball’ incident (Catherine Lotrionte )
Lowenthal’s Intelligence: From Secrets to Policy, now in its fourth edition, remains the best introduction to the role of the United States intelligence community in the national security policy making process. Popular with academics and practitioners alike, it is the standard text for many university level intelligence and national security courses. Clear, concise, and thoroughly updated to reflect recent changes in the intelligence community, this book demystifies the intelligence process and places it in a contemporary perspective that the general reader also will find informative (Kenneth R. Dombroski )
Lowenthal’s Intelligence: From Secrets to Policy remains the mainstay in my undergraduate political science course on intelligence and international security. It strikes an impressive balance between breadth and depth, attending to the important conceptual and political themes, while providing cogent accounts of the unique analytical, organizational, and strategic problems of intelligence policy, all of which are supported by illuminating figures and illustrations and vivid historical examples. The suggestions for further readings at the end of the chapters are gold-mine for students looking to go deeper into particular questions or to bolster their research papers, and a useful reference point for instructors as well (Timothy Crawford )
Since 9/11, much attention within the United States and abroad has been focused on the problems within the intelligence community. Lowenthal’s book offers a superior framework for understanding the structure of the intelligence community and the challenges it faces. The fourth edition will bring new insights into some of the most current controversies involving the intelligence community and U.S. policymakers--such as the Valerie Plame case and the ‘Curveball’ incident (Catherine Lotrionte )
Lowenthal’s Intelligence: From Secrets to Policy, now in its fourth edition, remains the best introduction to the role of the United States intelligence community in the national security policy making process. Popular with academics and practitioners alike, it is the standard text for many university level intelligence and national security courses. Clear, concise, and thoroughly updated to reflect recent changes in the intelligence community, this book demystifies the intelligence process and places it in a contemporary perspective that the general reader also will find informative (Kenneth R. Dombroski )
Lowenthal’s Intelligence: From Secrets to Policy remains the mainstay in my undergraduate political science course on intelligence and international security. It strikes an impressive balance between breadth and depth, attending to the important conceptual and political themes, while providing cogent accounts of the unique analytical, organizational, and strategic problems of intelligence policy, all of which are supported by illuminating figures and illustrations and vivid historical examples. The suggestions for further readings at the end of the chapters are gold-mine for students looking to go deeper into particular questions or to bolster their research papers, and a useful reference point for instructors as well (Timothy Crawford )
Product Description
TAKE COVERT ACTION AND SEIZE A COPY OF INTELLIGENCE BEFORE ANYONE ELSE
Intelligence veteran Mark M. Lowenthal details how the intelligence community's history, structure, procedures, and functions affect policy decisions. With his friendly prose, he demystifies a complicated and complex process. Rich with examples and anecdotes, Intelligence also includes bolded key terms, an acronym list, suggested readings and websites, and a list of major intelligence reviews or proposals.
This new, fully-updated fourth edition highlights many crucial recent developments in reforms, ethics, and transnational issues, including:
• the actual implementation of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) reforms and their successes and strains;
• the ongoing legal, operational, and ethical issues raised by the war against terrorism;
• the growth of transnational issues, such as WMD;
• fresh coverage of analytic standards and analytic transformation;
• more in-depth explanation of geospatial, signal, and human intelligence;
• a new discussion of the lessons of 9/11;
• and, the growing politicization of intelligence in the United States, specifically through the declassified use of National Intelligence Estimates (NIEs).
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I am writing this review due to my incredulity at Ole Bjrsvik's review, which should be held as very misleading. Potential buyers should beware that Lowenthal is not writing a 'spy story' designed to fill with intrigue and follow the typical stereotypes of what the intelligence world is perceived to be. Rather, this is a diligently prepared, and very well researched book into the real world working mechanics of the intelligence community, especially from the American perspective. Bjrsvik expressed surprise that this book is into its now fourth edition, there is a very simple explanation for this, that is because it has become mandatory reading on just about every serious Intelligence Studies course. This is most definitely the case in US-UK universities, this I can state with certainty as I am currently researching for my PhD on intelligence affairs.
Lowenthal not only provides exceptional definitional clarity into intelligence (in my opinion just about the finest example of which currently exists in the academic world), but also traces in particular the US intelligence establishment and how it operates. This is very much an organisational tract of this establishment, which does of course lead to it prime weakness: it does not deal with operational history of the intelligence agencies themselves. You will not find stories of the Bay of Pigs or of agent running. A secondary weakness is that it is of course a very US-centric view of intelligence, with the bulk of the book dedicated to revealing the US intelligence community and its relationship to its political masters. This however hardly detracts from a five star rating on what is an absolutely essential text for anybody interested in the serious study of intelligence matters. Treat it is as what it is, an academic text book, not as a spy story, and you will not be disappointed.
Lowenthal not only provides exceptional definitional clarity into intelligence (in my opinion just about the finest example of which currently exists in the academic world), but also traces in particular the US intelligence establishment and how it operates. This is very much an organisational tract of this establishment, which does of course lead to it prime weakness: it does not deal with operational history of the intelligence agencies themselves. You will not find stories of the Bay of Pigs or of agent running. A secondary weakness is that it is of course a very US-centric view of intelligence, with the bulk of the book dedicated to revealing the US intelligence community and its relationship to its political masters. This however hardly detracts from a five star rating on what is an absolutely essential text for anybody interested in the serious study of intelligence matters. Treat it is as what it is, an academic text book, not as a spy story, and you will not be disappointed.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I ordered this book after listening to an interview on New Zealand National Radio that sounded impressive. But after reading this book one of the more interesting things about it is that it has been printed in three editions. Because I have seldom read a book more boring than this. It is actually quite amazing how little insight into anything this book gives an average reader. There are a under chapter on the budget process and similar topics which may not be described too many other places. But much of the time I as a reader is left wondering who this book actually is written for. My only answer is that it must be written for lower grade academicians, that have insulated themselves from more "worldly" and "mundane" literature, that this book really represents something new. The book may have a value in that thoughts and topics that has been described twenty to thirty years ago, now is repeated by a former assistant director in the CIA. It may be a typical book for a university course. But what it gives of content and insight is really diluted compared to what one ought to expect from a modern text.
Parts of it obviously would be great for a spoken lecture. By opening the book at random the start of almost every paragraph is beautifully written, and just promise contents to come. But by sitting down and actually reading it, it is amazingly boring.
Parts of it obviously would be great for a spoken lecture. By opening the book at random the start of almost every paragraph is beautifully written, and just promise contents to come. But by sitting down and actually reading it, it is amazingly boring.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
23 reviews
34 of 36 people found the following review helpful
A significant contribution to intelligence literature
2 Mar 2000
Format:Paperback
This valuable and recent contribution to the intelligence bookshelf promises to become a classic text for any practitioner and student of intelligence. Understanding how the intelligence process can work efficiently, how consumers of intelligence can best utilize the process, and how essential it is for producers of intelligence to receive feedback by consumers (a critical and often lacking element), are among some of the major themes discussed. Perhaps one of the most valuable sections of the book is the chapter on the analysis process itself, considered to be the most difficult process in the intelligence cycle. The author clearly provides the reader with exceptional comments regarding analyst training, politicized intelligence, and mirror imaging, and offers many unique insights into the process itself. Intelligence: From Secrets To Policy, contains well developed chapters on Counterintelligence, Covert Action, and Ethical and Moral Issues. Mr. Lowenthall also provides the reader with unique appendices that include excerpts from the National Security Act, Executive Order 12333, and a listing of intelligence related web sites. Comprehensive and yet easy to understand, this publication is highly recommended for those of us wishing to examine, or reexamine, the crucial roles of consumer, producer, and analyst, and the ever-increasing importance of feedback in the intelligence cycle.
24 of 26 people found the following review helpful
A readable, well balanced treatise on the subject
1 Nov 2000
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Mark's latest book is a well-written, accurate depiction of the US intelligence business and various areas of intelligence tradecraft. His section on the US intelligence community will become outdated in time, but in it he develops an interesting functional view of the community. The book is very readable for newcomers while still being of interest to veterans of the business. It is intended to have broad coverage rather than depth. It would be admirably suited as a textbook for a short course on intelligence.
35 of 42 people found the following review helpful
Primer for Presidents, Congress, Media, and Public
2 May 2003
Format:Paperback
Mark Lowenthal, who today is the Associate Deputy Director of Central Intelligence for Analysis and Production (ADCI/A&P), was briefly (for a year) the President of OSS USA (I created OSS Inc., the global version). So much for disclosure and "conflicts of interest". The previous review, after a year of being irritatingly present, needs to be corrected. Dr. Lowenthal was for many years the Senior Executive Service reviewer of intelligence affairs for the Congressional Research Service, then he went on to be Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence & Research (Analysis), and then he became the Staff Director for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, where he supervised one of the two really serious really excellent studies on all that is wrong with intelligence and what needs to be fixed. OSS was lucky to have him contribute to its development for a year before he moved on to another corporation and then to the #5 position in the US Intelligence Community. He needs no help from me in either articulating his ideas or doing good work.
What the previous reviewer fails to understand is that Dr. Lowenthal's book represents the *only* available "primer" on intelligence that can be understood by Presidents, Congressmen, the media, and the public. While my own book (The New Craft of Intelligence) strives to discuss the over-all threats around the world in terms meaningful to the local neighborhoods of America, Dr. Lowenthal's book focuses on the U.S. Intelligence Community itself--the good, the bad, and the ugly. He is strongest on analysis and the politics of intelligence, somewhat weaker on collection and counterintelligence covert action. There is no other book that meets the need for this particular primer, and so I recommend it with enthusiasm. It is on the OSS.NET list of the top 15 books on intelligence reform every written.
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