Why Intelligence Fails: Lessons from the Iranian Revolution and the Iraq War

By: Robert Jervis

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Synopsis: Despite the resources at their command, U. S. intelligence services failed to anticipate the fall of the Shah's government in Iran in the late 1970s and, more recently, insisted that Saddam Hussein's regime possessed weapons of mass destruction. In this book, Jervis (International Politics, Columbia University) examines both failures, and rejects the common explanations that attribute these failures to political pressure and groupthink. Instead, the author suggests that the failures were a result of an organizational culture that failed to look into the factors behind intelligence assessments or to investigate alternative explanations. Although Jervis' writing can be on the dry side (especially in the part of the book about Iran), this his book is an essential read for anyone wanting to understand the workings of U. S. intelligence agencies, or the history of U. S. involvement in Iraq and Iran. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc. , Portland, OR (booknews. com)