Why Presidents Sometimes Do Not Use Intelligence Information
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4290050 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Patrick S Roberts (0000-0002-8920-0396, The Centers), Robert P Saldin |
| Year | 2016 |
| Volume | 131 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 779-802 |
| Publication date | 2016-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Political Science Quarterly (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0032-3195 • E-ISSN: 1538-165X |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1002/polq.12534 |
| OpenAlex | W2561063040 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
IMPASSIONED CALLS FOR REFORMING the intelligence process in U.S. foreign policy routinely follow on the heels of high-profile intelligence failures in which the intelligence community or the government as a whole is caught by surprise. These failures are blamed on inadequate warning grounded in organizational, psychological, and informational weaknesses in the intelligence process, as in Pearl Harbor or the failure to “connect the dots” before the 11 September 2001 attacks.1 The reforms that follow usually attempt to reorganize agencies and processes by improving the speed, amount, and accuracy of intelligence information provided to politicians, particularly the president.2 Yet these reforms often fail.3 The reforms might have a better chance of succeeding if reformers understood that policy output does not always flow from intelligence input. Given this disconnect, what may appear to the public or even to Congress as an intelligence failure or a policy failure may be neither from the perspective of the president or the bureaucracy.4 There may be reasons other than a lack of sufficient information as to why no policy action was taken in response to intelligence information, even if the situation seems to call for action. This is a particular version of a larger problem with policy-relevant information. If administrative agencies, think tanks, and scholars produce so much research, why is so little of it used?5 With respect to intelligence information, the reason has to do with the mismatch between the incentives for intelligence producers and consumers. The former are rewarded for satisfying the latter, and the latter often perceive that they will be rewarded for pursuing an agenda that does not always comport with the best available information
Action (physics) · Bureaucracy · Business · Economics · Government (linguistics) · Incentive · Intelligence analysis · Intelligence cycle · Market economy · Military intelligence · Political science · Politics · Process (computing) · Public relations · Surprise · Computer Science · Intelligence, Security, War Strategy · Law · Psychology · Public Administration · Social Psychology
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,5 |
| Citation span | 2020 - 2026 (7) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |