The Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs is proud to host a Director's Seminar entitled "The Current State of the Intelligence Community" with Admiral Stansfield Turner. Admiral Turner served as Director of Central Intelligence from 1977-1981, where he headed both the Intelligence Community (composed of all foreign intelligence agencies of the United States) and the Central Intelligence Agency. While there, he developed new procedures for closer oversight of the Intelligence Community by Congress and the White House, led the Intelligence Community in adapting to a new era of real-time photographic satellites and instituted major management reform at the CIA.
Prior to his work in Central Intelligence, Admiral Turner served in the U.S. Navy as a Rear Admiral and as a flag officer served in command for a Carrier task group of the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean, as the Director of the Navy's Office of System Analysis, as Commander of the Second Fleet and as the 36th President of the Naval War College. He made major changes at both the academic content and pedagogical style of the War College's course. In part the course was based on the study of military history, going back to the Peolopnnesian Wars; in part on reading the classical military strategists; and in part on case studies of decision-making techniques midst ambiguity and uncertainty. These revisions in the curriculum have basically remained in effect ever since. In September 1975, he was promoted to the rank of Admiral and became commander-in-chief of NATO's Southern Flank.
Admiral Turner has taught at various distinguished universities including Yale, the United States Military Academy at West Point and the University of Maryland at College Park. He is the author of three books, Secrecy and Democracy, Terrorism and Democracy, and Caging the Nuclear Genie - An American Challenge for Global Security. He holds several honorary degrees and in the member of various Boards.
Admiral Turner holds a Bachelor of Science degree from United States Naval Academy and a master's degree in philosophy, politics and economics from Oxford University where he was also a Rhodes Scholar.
Please join us for what is sure to be a stimulating and informative discussion.
