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Time for a Change in U.S. Intelligence?: World Changes Call for New Structure
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20277 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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| Issue
Date : |
7 / 1992 |
2,249 Words |
| Author
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David L. Boren
Sen. David L. Boren (D-Oklahoma) is chairman of the Senate
Intelligence Committee. |
The greatest threat to our country's national security is the danger that we will not change our thinking to coincide with the changes in the world. World leadership in the next century will depend on a different set of assets than were needed for leadership in the last half-century.
Economic and social strengths will overshadow military might as the primary determinants of world influence. As our friends and allies become less intimidated by the fading Soviet military threat, they become less willing to follow our lead. America's international influence in the future will be based largely on our economic strength and on our ability to create a social and political model for other nations to follow.
The implications for America's intelligence community are clear. Developments in the world around us, coupled with increasing budgetary constraints at home, are causing the most sweeping changes in our intelligence system since the CIA was created by the National Security Act 44 years ago. The task of Congress and the president is to redefine the very mission of intelligence in the new world.
The process of change has already begun. For well over a year, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) has been conducting a study of the structure of the intelligence community through a series of hearings and personal interviews with a wide cross section of present and former top government officials, intelligence experts, and historians. The SSCI has had the dual task of improving the oversight process and looking ahead to determine the new challenges of the intelligence community.
Lessons Learned
The Intelligence Authorization Bill passed in August 1991 contained historic reforms in the covert action oversight process reflecting lessons learned from the Iran-Contra affair. The new statute tightens the definitions of "covert actions" and "timely notice." Furthermore, it outlaws retroactive presidential findings and requires that third-party involvement in covert actions be revealed to congressional oversight committees.
Covert operations are naturally a key area of concern. The lessons learned in the past 10 years, coupled with the changes in the world situation and the end of superpower confrontation, make it much less likely that large-scale paramilitary covert action will be used in the decade ahead of us. Major U.S. interventions are
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