Flawed by Design: The Evolution of the Cia, Jcs, and Nsc

Rating:
Summary: Flawed by Design
Review: This is a brillant book on the culture and dynamics of the U.S. National Security Establishment. Zegart has formulated a model of what she calls "National Scurity Agencies" to explain how and why the creation and evolution of institutions that belong to the National Security Establishment differ from institutions in the domestic policy arena. Although I think her model is probably incomplete, it remains a very good tool for understanding and analyzing the workings of the U.S. National Security Establishment. Zegart uses her model with devastating effect to analyze the creation and evolution of the National Security Council, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). These three are extermely well chosen examples of the different components of the the national security community. Her analysis of the CIA is especially insightful, profound, and accurate. Unfortunately, Zegart clearly and incontestably demonstrates that a major reform of the U.S. intellignece system can only occur if a cast of dedicated, powerful political actors combines with a unique set of compelling circumstances to force change on that system. At best such a combination is highly improbable. For the curious, this book also provides a clear and decisive explination of why all the millions of words concrning reform of the intelligence system that have been generated over the last ten years by congressional committees, presidential special commissions and speical studies by outside consultants have disppeared without a trace.

Zegart's book should have precipitated a storm of controversy when it was published and now should be on the must read list of everyone interested in reshaping the national intelligence system. In point of fact, as far as I can tell, the real movers and shakers of the intelligence community ignored this book when it was published and ignore it today. Zegart is an exceptional scholar and more importantly a good analyst who deserves wider recognition than she apparently has received. Read her book and digest the melancholy truth that reform of the intelligence system is no more likely than reform of the electoral system, though for different reasons.

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Summary: Too Hard to Fix on the Margins--Fix Big or Don't Fix At All
Review: This is a very worthy and thoughtful book. It breaks new ground in understanding the bureaucratic and political realities that surrounded the emergence of the National Security Council, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Central Intelligence Agency. The CIA was weak by design, strongly opposed by the military services from the beginning. Its covert activities emerged as a Presidential prerogative, unopposed by others in part because it kept CIA from being effective at coordinated analysis, for which it had neither the power nor the talent. Most usefully, the book presents a new institutionalist theory of bureaucracy that gives full weight to the original design, the political players including the bureaucrats themselves, and external events. Unlike domestic agencies that have strong interest groups, open information, legislative domain, and unconnected bureaucracies, the author finds that national security agencies, being characterized by weak interest groups, secrecy, executive domain, and connected bureaucracies, evolve differently from other bureaucracies, and are much harder to reform. On balance, the author finds that intelligence per se, in contrast to defense or domestic issues, is simply not worth the time and Presidential political capital needed to fix but that if reform is in the air, the President should either pound on the table and put the full weight of their office behind a substantive reform proposal, or walk away from any reform at all-the middle road will not successful.

Rating:
Summary: Powerful intellectual analysis by a dazzling newcomer
Review: With Flawed by Design, Zegart makes a spectacular splash into the world of professional political academic analysis. Trained at Stanford University, Zegart employs an approach that is both refreshingly "old school" in its historical approach and new school in its analytical rigor. In short, Zegart has offered up a piece of academic literature that is certain to become a classic. Look out for this rising star over the next 10 years. Let's only hope that the "rational choice" dogma of the field doesn't precluding Zegart from continuing her Tiger Woods-like path through the political science circuit.