Articles

Calder Walton writes that the use and abuse of intelligence is one of the most contested and scrutinized subjects in contemporary news and current affairs. By contrast, for a student of history who is eager to understand the similarities and differences between clandestine operations today and those in the past, there are yawning gaps in the literature and the classroom when it comes to intelligence, U.S. foreign relations, and international relations. These gaps exist even in some of the latest and most authoritative publications, as well as the history classes of major U.S. universities.

Calder Walton, Ernest May Fellow in History and Policy and editor of a three-volume series on espionage, provides context for the FBI's Russia probe

Juliette Kayyem suggested that freshman Texas GOP Representative Dan Crenshaw support his argument on border security with facts — "not with mocking a woman."  This article covers the Twitter exchange.

The extraordinary complexity of today’s advanced weapons systems has significantly reduced the ability of states to imitate other states’ military technology. Consequently, U.S. rivals such as China will continue to struggle to develop indigenous capabilities that can match those of the United States.

Current gross indicators such as population and GDP are misleading in terms of a country’s relative power. Power can be calculated more accurately by subtracting a country’s liabilities from its assets.

Without overcoming their historical amnesia disorder about U.S. and British intelligence, citizens, scholars, and policy-makers cannot hope to understand the proper context for what secret agencies are doing today.

The Harvard Gazette's Christina Pazzanese interviews Belfer Center Senior Fellow James Clapper his new book, and the state of U.S. intelligence.