Good diplomacy goes hand-in-hand with good intelligence. Just as courtroom lawyers never ask a question to which they do not already know the answer, so too should politicians and diplomats avoid negotiating with enemies without first understanding what they bring to the table and what they seek to conceal. Because rogue regimes are among America’s most opaque and dangerous adversaries, a breakthrough in relations can define a President’s legacy and make diplomats’ careers. Too often, the temptation to succeed can be overwhelming. When intelligence clashes with political and diplomatic goals, the sanctity of intelligence often loses: seldom do Presidents want their diplomatic initiatives to be the sacrifice.
The corruption of intelligence can occur in many ways. Analysts can allow personal biases to intrude on assessments, officials can change definitions or interpretations about what is licit or illicit, and decisions about what to include in assessments let alone the President’s Daily Brief, can, by inclusion or omission, impact decisionmaking. But, to what end does intelligence politicization occur? While popular imagination suggests that administrations twist intelligence to make the case for war—take, for example, the Gulf of Tonkin incident or allegations that President George W. Bush or Vice President Richard B. Cheney politicized intelligence prior to the second Iraq War—the reality is largely the opposite. When administrations seek to bring rogues in from the cold, diplomats, politicians, and even intelligence analysts themselves will often twist intelligence in order to support diplomatic goals and to reconcile with an enemy, even when that adversary has not changed its character.
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