Emotional intelligence: culture, intimacy, and empire in early CIA espionage

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article seeks to stimulate dialogue between U.S. intelligence history and the history of American foreign relations by bringing some of the latter’s recent concerns – namely, culture, emotion, and ‘entangled empires’ – into the study of American intelligence, specifically CIA espionage in the post-colonial world during the early Cold War. To that end, the article considers the cultural and social origins of the CIA within an imperial history context; examines the lived experience of CIA officers assigned to post-colonial locations, including their relationships with local agents; and concludes by suggesting future directions for a post-colonial interpretation of CIA intelligence analysis.