Clements and Strauss Directors Launch Intelligence Studies Project

The workshop was the first fruit of a joint Strauss-Clements initiative tentatively-titled the Intelligence Studies Project, the central aim of which is to promote policy-relevant, interdisciplinary research concerning the activities, structure, and regulatory environment of the U.S. Intelligence Community. In addition to Chesney and Inboden, workshop participants included a number of renowned scholars in the field of national security and intelligence from other institutions, including Michael Desch of Notre Dame, Thomas Mahnken of the Naval War College, Benjamin Wittes of the Brookings Institution, Kori Schake of the Hoover Institution, Amy Zegart of Stanford, Richard Betts of Columbia, and both Josh Rovner and Jeff Engel of SMU. The day-long event provided the participants with rich insights into the operations and perspective of an institution that is notoriously difficulty for outsiders to study, and included extensive discussions of potential reforms.