(DOWNLOAD) "Foregone Conclusions: Vested Interests and Intelligence Analysis (Ambassador Chas W. Freeman, Jr.) (Speech)" by American Diplomacy * eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Foregone Conclusions: Vested Interests and Intelligence Analysis (Ambassador Chas W. Freeman, Jr.) (Speech)
- Author : American Diplomacy
- Release Date : January 07, 2009
- Genre: Politics & Current Events,Books,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 73 KB
Description
Editor's Note: Ambassador Chas Freeman was recently in the national spotlight because of his nomination to become Director of the National Intelligence Council and the subsequent storm of criticism that led him to decline the job. In this June 12 speech to DACOR (Diplomatic and Consular Officers Retired) in Washington, he talks about the importance of intelligence analysis to sound statecraft and how it must be dispassionate, non-polemic, objective, and divorced from political pressures--the critical assessor, not the designated cheerleader, of policy results. He examines in particular the influence of the "Likud Lobby" and the shaky assumptions that he believes underlie U.S. policy in Afghanistan.--Ed. Not so long ago--before I was sprayed by political skunks and had to excuse myself to avoid subjecting others to the stench of political vilification--I had occasion to spend some time thinking about intelligence, in the sense of the analysis of information relevant to statecraft. This is an important topic under any circumstance. It is all the more so in the wake of the string of disasters that persistent inattentiveness to foreign trends and events, occasional analytical misjudgments, and frequent policy miscalculations have brought us in recent years.