Abstract

In the late eighties and early nineties, driven by the post–Cold War environment and lessons learned during military operations, United States policy makers made intelligence support to the military the Intelligence Community's top priority. In response to this demand, the CIA and DoD instituted policy and organizational changes that altered their relationship with one another. While debates over the future of the Intelligence Community were occurring on Capitol Hill, the CIA and DoD were expanding their relationship in peacekeeping and nation-building operations in Somalia and the Balkans. By the late 1990s, some policy makers and national security professionals became concerned that intelligence support to military operations had gone too far. In Subordinating Intelligence: The DoD/CIA Post–Cold War Relationship, David P. Oakley reveals that, despite these concerns, no major changes to national intelligence or its priorities were implemented. These concerns were forgotten after 9/11, as the United States fought two wars and policy makers increasingly focused on tactical and operational actions. As policy makers became fixated with terrorism and the United States fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, the CIA directed a significant amount of its resources toward global counterterrorism efforts and in support of military operations.

Biography

David Oakley has served over twenty-four years in national security. He served in the U.S. Army as a field artillery officer and strategist, in the Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA) National Clandestine Service/Directorate of Operations as a Staff Operations Officer (SOO), and as a contractor at the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center. His last assignment in the U.S. Army was as an assistant professor at National Defense University’s College of International Security Affairs in Washington, D.C from 2016-2021. Dave is a Visiting Research Fellow in the Department of War Studies at King's College London and is on the editorial boards for Intelligence and National Security and the Special Operations Journal. His book, Subordinating Intelligence: The DoD/CIA Post-Cold War Relationship, was published by the University Press of Kentucky in 2019. Dave is currently an Air Force civilian serving as an associate professor. He lives in the Tampa, Florida area.

KCSI Seminar: ‘US intelligence and special operations' with David Oakley