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The Threat on the Horizon

An Inside Account of America's Search for Security after the Cold War

Loch K. Johnson (Regents Professor of International Affairs, Regents Professor of International Affairs, University of Georgia)

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Hardback

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English
Oxford University Press Inc
01 March 2011
The Aspin-Brown Commission of 1995-1996, led by former U.S. Defense Secretaries Les Aspin and Harold Brown, was a landmark inquiry into the activities of America's secret agencies.

The purpose of the commission was to help the Central Intelligence Agency and other organizations in the U.S. intelligence community adapt to the quite different world that had emerged after the end of the Cold War in 1991.

In The Threat on the Horizon, eminent national security scholar Loch K. Johnson, who served as Aspin's assistant, offers a comprehensive insider's account of this inquiry.

Based on a close sifting of government documents and media reports, interviews with participants, and, above all, his own eyewitness impressions, Johnson's thorough history offers a unique window onto why the terrorist attacks of 2001 caught the United States by surprise and why the intelligence community failed again in 2002 when it predicted that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction.

It will be the first published account by an insider of a presidential commission on intelligence--a companion volume to Johnson's acclaimed study of the Church Committee investigation into intelligence in 1975 (A Season of Inquiry). This examination of the Aspin-Brown Commission is an invaluable source for anyone interested in the how the intelligence agencies of the world's most powerful nation struggled to confront new global threats that followed the collapse of the Soviet empire, and why Washington, D.C. was unprepared for the calamities that would soon arise.
By:  
Imprint:   Oxford University Press Inc
Country of Publication:   United States
Dimensions:   Height: 241mm,  Width: 163mm,  Spine: 42mm
Weight:   857g
ISBN:   9780199737178
ISBN 10:   0199737177
Pages:   560
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Preface Acknowledgments A Glossary of Terms Part I: The Beginning 1: Uneasy Birth 2: Starting Up 3: Seeking Answers Part II: Seeking Answers 4: A New Intelligence Chief 5: Down on the Farm 6: Weighing the Value of Estimates Part III: Leadership Transition 7: The Death of a Chairman 8: Wobbling Forward 9: Brown at the Helm Part IV: End Game 10: A Second Retreat 11: The Final Stretch 12: The Commission Reports Part V: Reform Unraveled 13: In the Commission's Wake 14: Intelligence Reform Redux Appendix Notes

Reviews for The Threat on the Horizon: An Inside Account of America's Search for Security after the Cold War

<br> Loch Johnson's account of the Aspin-Brown commission will be viewed as a classic in the literature on American government and intelligence studies. His insider story reveals how official Washington thought about intelligence in the years before the 9/11 tragedy and how the commission's work fits into the ongoing effort at intelligence reform. The Threat on the Horizon tells a fascinating tale about a part of government that is generally inaccessible to citizens and scholars alike. --James J. Wirtz, Dean of the School of International Graduate Studies, Naval Postgraduate School<p><br> Loch Johnson's lively first-hand account is a rare behind-the-scenes look at an inquiry into U.S. intelligence. He shows that the answers, and even the questions, are more complicated than most think. --Paul R. Pillar, Professor of Security Studies, Georgetown University<p><br> Making the American intelligence process work has vexed and perplexed policymakers and analysts for decades. Nobody understan


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