Document Type

Article

Source of Publication

International Affairs

Publication Date

2-7-2022

Abstract

United States President Joe Biden has been in government since 1973. Despite the changing nature of international relations since then, his approach to intelligence has remained consistent and stable, including his enthusiasm for national intelligence and uneasiness about militarizing it. This article assesses United States President Joe Biden's approach to intelligence. It evaluates his evolving relationship with the Central Intelligence Agency and the rest of the intelligence community from the early 1970s, when he was elected to Congress, to the early 2020s, when he became the forty-sixth president of the United States. It concludes that, against the ever-changing context of international affairs, from the late Cold War to the global 'war on terror', Biden's approach to intelligence has remained consistent and stable, showing, on the one hand, enthusiasm for the production of national intelligence, and, on the other, a marked uneasiness about paramilitary covert action and the militarization of intelligence. The discussion that follows speaks to a larger debate, dating to the 1940s and still ongoing, in the executive and legislative branches of government, concerning the purposes and proper use of intelligence. This will interest policy-makers, officials and lawmakers responsible for intelligence and oversight, researchers and practitioners in security and intelligence, and scholars of American foreign relations.

ISSN

Publisher

Oxford University Press (OUP)

Volume

98

Issue

2

First Page

549

Last Page

567

Disciplines

Social and Behavioral Sciences

Indexed in Scopus

no

Open Access

yes

Open Access Type

Hybrid: This publication is openly available in a subscription-based journal/series

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