Spies, Lies, and Algorithms: The History and Future of American Intelligence

by Amy B. Zegart

For most of history, power and geography provided security.

Social media has become so important, even the consoles at America’s underground nuclear command center display Twitter feeds alongside classified information feeds.

Balancing secrecy and openness is an age-old struggle. Secrecy is vital for protecting intelligence sources and collection methods, as well as securing advantage. Openness is vital for ensuring democratic accountability. Too much secrecy invites abuse. Too much transparency makes intelligence ineffective.

Many countries’ intelligence services spy on their own citizens. In 2018, China spent more on internal security than external defense.

intelligence tailors information to a policymaker’s needs. Intelligence agencies don’t just spit out the same responses to everyone, like Google searches.

Francis Bacon warned of the dangers of confirmation bias in 1620, writing, “The human understanding when it has once adopted an opinion … draws all things else to support and agree with it.”

the more classified something becomes, the less analysis it gets because so few people have access;

“No target remains static; no offensive or defensive capability remains indefinitely effective; and no advantage is permanent.”