Crises and 'pivot' will boost US intelligence agencies
Monday, January 5, 2015
Subject
The US intelligence community in a year after purported reforms.
Significance
On December 29, an agreement between the United States, Japan and South Korea to share intelligence on North Korea went into effect. This ended a year in which the US intelligence community was the subject of broad domestic public scrutiny in the light of continued fallout from former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden's leaks to a Senate report on the CIA's use of torture. The White House's support for reforms has been watched by tech and telecoms businesses that have lost considerable revenue from reputational damage as a result of the growing awareness of requirements on them of US intelligence activities.
Impacts
- The Obama administration will rely on the US intelligence community as its main counterterrorist instrument.
- A Republican Congress will be less likely to support intelligence reforms, though only marginally so.
- There is no indication that the balance of power on intelligence issues between the executive and legislative branches has shifted.
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