Intelligence for An Age of Terror

During the Cold War, U.S. intelligence was concerned primarily with states; non-state actors like terrorists were secondary. Now the priorities are reversed and the challenge is enormous. States had an address, and they were hierarchical and bureaucratic. They thus came with some 'story'. Terrorists do not. States were 'over there', but terrorists are there and here. They thus put pressure on intelligence at home, not just abroad. The strength of this book is that it underscores the extent of the change and ranges broadly across data collection and analysis, foreign and domestic, as well as presenting the issues of value that arise as new targets require collecting more information at home. This book emphasizes how much the analysis of terrorism has changed now that the perpetrators are no longer simply state-backed actors. Terrorist acts also no longer tell a 'story' but occur with virtually no signals beforehand. Terrorists consistently adapt to our vulnerabilities and make us less secure than ever before.