Strategic Assessment

Leading Western intelligence communities are currently confronting a wave of intense criticism following two serious intelligence failures: one relating to the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, and the other relating to the war in Iraq. The most serious criticism is leveled at the American intelligence community, in part because it was involved in both failures but also, and primarily, because the results of the failures were extremely damaging to the United States. Critics perceive these failures of the American intelligence community as symptomatic of systemic, non-isolated defects. Additional – albeit less severe – criticism is directed against the British and Israeli intelligence communities, and the calls for reform of these systems match similar efforts elsewhere in Europe. Some of these proposals have far-reaching implications.