The men who have held the highest office in the Central Intelligence Agency are an eclectic group. They include two Rhodes Scholars and a college dropout, captains of industry and career public servants, Agency veterans and newcomers to the field of intelligence. More than 65 years after the Agency was founded, there is still no established road to the top. This is just one of the many themes presented in this revealing look at the 23 leaders who have directed the CIA and its forerunners from 1941 to 2012. The publication opens with a profile of Major General William J. Donovan-the legendary intelligence chief who ran the Office of Strategic Services, a precursor of the CIA during World War II-and those of two other intelligence pioneers who, like Donovan, never served at the CIA but helped lay the groundwork for its foundation. The publication then traces the careers of my predecessors in the Director's office, who were known as Directors of Central Intelligence until that title was replaced in 2005 with Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, after the establishment of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The profiles depict the 23 leaders in the context of their times, describing their triumphs and their setbacks not in isolation but as elements in a larger drama of domestic politics and foreign affairs. Their stories are inspiring, sometimes sobering, and always fascinating. They also feature, of course, the controversy that seems endemic to the sensitive and challenging work of intelligence. Taken together, these profiles offer an illuminating account drawn from the full unclassified record. It is written in broad strokes but with enough detail to spark the kind of informed debate that has always been a hallmark of the CIA. Since its inception, our Agency has been rooted in a culture of inquiry and constant self-examination. This work stands as a fine example of that honorable tradition.

All democracies have had to contend with the challenge of tolerating hidden spy services within otherwise relatively transparent governments. Democracies pride themselves on privacy and liberty, but intelligence organizations have secret budgets, gather information surreptitiously around the world, and plan covert action against foreign regimes. Sometimes, they have even targeted the very citizens they were established to protect, as with the COINTELPRO operations in the 1960s and 1970s, carried out by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) against civil rights and antiwar activists. In this sense, democracy and intelligence have always been a poor match. Yet Americans live in an uncertain and threatening world filled with nuclear warheads, chemical and biological weapons, and terrorists intent on destruction. Without an intelligence apparatus scanning the globe to alert the United States to these threats, the planet would be an even more perilous place. In Spy Watching, Loch K. Johnson explores the United States' travails in its efforts to maintain effective accountability over its spy services. Johnson explores the work of the famous Church Committee, a Senate panel that investigated America's espionage organizations in 1975 and established new protocol for supervising the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the nation's other sixteen secret services. Johnson explores why partisanship has crept into once-neutral intelligence operations, the effect of the 9/11 attacks on the expansion of spying, and the controversies related to CIA rendition and torture programs. He also discusses both the Edward Snowden case and the ongoing investigations into the Russian hack of the 2016 US election. Above all, Spy Watching seeks to find a sensible balance between the twin imperatives in a democracy of liberty and security. Johnson draws on scores of interviews with Directors of Central Intelligence and others in America's secret agencies, making this a uniquely authoritative account.

Former Navy SEAL turned CIA operative, Ryan Parker, is ordered to investigate a threat against the United States government. He is part of a specialized unit of the Counterterrorism Center, and he must track down whoever is responsible for the threat before it’s too late. As he digs into the case, Ryan makes an unfortunate discovery. He believes the men behind the terrorist plot are his ex-comrades, former Navy SEALs attempting to restore order and balance to corrupt Washington DC. The only way to do so is through violent means— means in which these warriors are frighteningly well versed. Ryan knows from personal experience what these men are capable of. Ryan has only three days to identify the elite warriors involved and stop their plot. Yet, the further he gets into the investigation, the more Ryan starts to believe the Navy SEALs are in the right. The treasonous conspiracy he is charged to prevent may actually be justified and necessary. With this new information, Ryan must decide which side he’s on. “ Colter Bostick develops an all too believable tale of conspiracy within the government of the United States... So believable, in fact, that this reader actually wonders if a violent act of sedition might not be possible. Certainly such trained intelligence agents as Bostick presents exist in our time of tension and instability.” —Frank Kersnowski, author of Conversations with Robert Graves

Contemporary American Foreign Policy: Influences, Challenges, and Opportunities looks at today’s most pressing foreign-policy challenges from a U.S. perspective, as well as from the vantage point of other states and peoples. It explores global issues such as human rights, climate change, poverty, nuclear arms proliferation, and economic collapse from multiple angles, not just through a so-called national interest lens. Authors Richard Mansbach and Kirsten L. Taylor shed new light on the competing forces that influence foreign-policy decision making, outline the various policy options available to decision makers, and explore the potential consequences of those policies, all to fully grasp and work to meet contemporary foreign-policy challenges.

The Oxford Handbook of National Security Intelligence is a state-of-the-art work on intelligence and national security. Edited by Loch Johnson, one of the world's leading authorities on the subject, the handbook examines the topic in full, beginning with an examination of the major theories of intelligence. It then shifts its focus to how intelligence agencies operate, how they collect information from around the world, the problems that come with transforming "raw" information into credible analysis, and the difficulties in disseminating intelligence to policymakers. It also considers the balance between secrecy and public accountability, and the ethical dilemmas that covert and counterintelligence operations routinely present to intelligence agencies. Throughout, contributors factor in broader historical and political contexts that are integral to understanding how intelligence agencies function in our information-dominated age.