Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Source on Privatization of Intelligence

Heard interview with TIM SHORROCK, an author who investigates privatization of intelligence operations by US.


Democracy now interview.

This is a possible future research thread for me. Critics will say privatization doesn't work by its own metrics of effectiveness and cost efficiency. Why does it persist then? How is it institutionally perpetuated? A network image springs to mind- there is a thick and lumpy skin of overlaping contractors around the core funding source of US intelligence. There are network questions. There is the revolving door phenomenon. There are also 1,000s of top secret classification analysts who leave government and then install with private contractors at big premiums.

Note to self: x-post with MGMT339 blpog.

1 comment:

generic said...

I thought that segment of the show was disappointing save for the jill scott song. It's not clear to me what your potential research questions are. It's not clear to me that the contractors are unilaterally wasteful with resources and efficiency. Another way to look at it is that the NSA and other agencies that contract out have much better access to the latest knowledge, thinking and technology by using contractors. My other concern based on your comment is that if you have a really big hammer, every problem looks like a nail to you...this is very common in the IT world and you may want to be judicious in your use of network theory.