| The events of 9/11 and the failure to find Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) in Iraq have sparked a general debate in the United States regarding how the US intelligence community should be reformed to more effectively protect the nation. However, amidst this debate one aspect of American intelligence capabilities seems to be conspicuously under-addressed---namely covert action. A review of the CIA's involvement in covert action and the impact that this has on intelligence collection, intelligence analysis, and national security decision-making reveals that the CIA and the covert action bureaucracy must be reformed.The central purpose of this thesis is to use the policy sciences framework to think about intelligence collection and policy implementation, and the potential pitfalls of housing both activities in the same organization. This thesis explains how and why the CIA assumed its non-conventional war-fighting role how this role has changed over time and how the CIA's role---as both a policy input and an instrument of policy---adversely affects the US Government's intelligence and decision-making processes. |
