Soldiers, Scholars, and Spies: Combining Smarts and Secrets

Abstract

The worlds of intelligence, the military, and academe reflect very different, at times conflicting, cultures, ethical norms, and priorities. This examination assesses the evolution of the sometimes fractious relationship between scholars and government military and intelligence officials, disputes among them, and cases of convergence and critical collaboration.To be effective in policy and decision making, the U.S. government needs the best information and thinking it can obtain. Much of that expertise resides in academia. For their part, social scientists and members of the healing professions, in particular, must be attentive to the moral, intellectual, and ethical dictates of their professions when participating in support of government employment of coercive military force and extraordinary means of intelligence acquisition. Finding the appropriate balance between helping safeguard national security and upholding the tenets of professional integrity is a joint task of soldiers, scholars, and spies.