Outsourcing US Intelligence

Damien Van Puyvelde is Lecturer in Intelligence and International Security at the University of Glasgow. He has published widely on the role of intelligence and security agencies in contemporary democracies. A member of the editorial boards of the International Journal of Intelligence, Security and Public Affairs and Sécurité et Stratégie, he also co-convenes Intelligence Studies networks at the International Studies Association and the Association pour les Etudes sur la Guerre et la Stratégie.

• Acknowledgments; List of Abbreviations; Figures; Introduction; 1. Broadening Intelligence Accountability; 2. A Shared History of Successes and Excesses; 3. The Growth of Intelligence Contracting in the Post-Cold War Era; 4. The Accountability Regime for Contractors during the Global War on Terrorism; 5. Improving Government Oversight of Intelligence Contractors; 6. The Future of Intelligence Outsourcing; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.

The book’s strengths are in its willingness to sort through the utter minutiae of both existing and failed legislation. For this, Van Puyvelde should be lauded for doing truly onerous labor. Van Puyvelde painstakingly demonstrates that Congress is not only sensitive to concerns about intelligence outsourcing, but that there are numerous examples of legislation, passed and failed, that reveal a continual evolution of the relationship between contractors and the government. Van Puyvelde makes clear that while the relationship is not perfect, it is far from out of the norm and is increasingly regulated in the state’s interests.[...] Ultimately what Van Puyvelde manages to do is to write broadly into an academic lacuna that links intelligence outsourcing with accountability. Van Puyvelde’s book works most effectively as a primer for graduate students seeking an introduction to intelligence and a nuanced counterargument against bombastic claims about intelligence out of control through the private marketplace.