The business of Intelligence in the U.S.: Productivity vs. loyalty?

Abstract

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union (USSR) the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) experienced important structural and material changes in order to reduce the ballooning intelligence and defense budget as a result of the Cold War. These adjustments encouraged the liberalization of the information technology (IT) market in support of IC requirements, outsourcing and privatizing national security, causing a pernicious dynamic within its oversight, management and inspection mechanisms. The 9/11 events and the Iraq War stimulated an out-of-control neoliberalization which reflected the limits between public interests and private interests, where domestic security and foreign security concepts, simultaneously, overlapped. This reality discouraged the strengthening of the known IC strategic intelligence deficit favoring IT.