HISTORY 2119 - Open and Closed:The History and Conduct of Intelligence in the United States,from the Revolution to the War in Iraq

Institution:

Bard College

Subject:

Description:

Aldrich Ames, one of the U.S. intelligence community's greatest double agents, declared following his capture in 1994 that "the espionage business, as carried out by the CIA and a few other self-serving agencies, was and is a selfserving sham." The inability of the CIA or any other U.S. intelligence service to predict almost every meaningful turn in world affairs since 1947 seems to bear him out, but not entirely. There do exist departments within each intelligence agency that have served America well: the much-maligned research and analysis (R&A) teams. This course examines the roots of the dual nature of American intelligence-the flashy operational side and the anonymous but more important R&A teams. While operative intelligence relies primarily on "closed" or classifiedintelligence, R&A teams exploit the value of "open" intelligence-information available talmost anyone who cares to go looking for it, in the media, online, etc. Students establish their own "agency" based upon open intelligence totry to determine whether espionage makes any difference at all, or if America could not drastically reduce its intelligence expenditure by focusing primarily on open intelligence.

Credits:

4.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.bard.edu

Phone Number:

(845) 758-6822

Regional Accreditation:

Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Semester

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