ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the role of the Consortium for the Study of Intelligence (CSI) in influencing intelligence policy during the Reagan administration. From middle ranking positions in the Reagan transition team, the National Security Council and the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (PFIAB), CSI writers supported the administration’s attempts to revive the Cold War state-private network through an expansion of covert action alongside more open mechanisms such as the National Endowment for Democracy. The CSI’s influence was also felt in the Central Intelligence Agency’s Directorate of Intelligence where administration advocates of counter-deception analysis encountered significant dissent.
The CSI’s influence peaked during the mid-1980s, before the Iran-Contra scandal and the emergence of perestroika in the Soviet Union led the Reagan administration to turn towards renewed détente.
