The Politicization of U.S. Intelligence: Causes and Consequences

Our guest will be Dr. John A. Gentry, adjunct professor with Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service and teaches for the School of Defense and Strategic Studies, Missouri State University. He was for 12 years an intelligence analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency, where he mainly worked on economic issues associated with the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact countries; for two of those years he was senior analyst on the staff of the National Intelligence Officer for Warning. He is a retired U.S. Army Reserve officer, with most assignments in special operations and intelligence arenas. Dr. Gentry formerly taught at Columbia University and at the National Intelligence University. His research interests primarily are in intelligence studies. His most recent book is Neutering the CIA: Why US Intelligence Versus Trump Has Long-Term Consequences (Armin Lear Press, 2023). He is co-author (with Joseph S. Gordon) of Strategic Warning Intelligence: History, Challenges, and Prospects (Georgetown University Press, 2019). He also is author of about 35 articles on intelligence topics and is a member of the editorial committee of the International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence. He received his Ph.D. in political science from The George Washington University.