Stanford University Press Blog

Diamond Brings CIA History to the Political Forefront

  John Diamond, former USA Today national security reporter and author of The CIA and the Culture of Failure U.S. Intelligence from the end of the Cold War to the Invasion of Iraq, has been featured in several media outlets, an interview on NPR's Talk of the Nation, an interview on Insight, and an article in USA Today's Opinions Editorial, for his expertise in the area of CIA history and operations.

      The CIA and the Culture of Failure is Diamond's analysis of the CIA's role in history from US-Soviet relations at the end of the Cold War to the failures and successes that occurred during the hostile and confusing political environment in the years following 9/11.

     Diamond brings his expertise to the current political situation in his Opinion article in USA Today entitled, "The Right Guy for the CIA?" The article addresses President Obama's recent decision to appoint Leon Panetta as the head of the CIA, and that decision's implications for the agency's image and intelligence provisions to the President.

    “The concern surrounding President-elect Barack Obama's choice of Leon Panetta to head the agency is that the new administration is placing greater weight on the CIA's image and reputation than on the intelligence the president needs to lead effectively. Addressing that concern will be Panetta's first order of business, both in his confirmation hearing and after taking over at CIA.”

    In the article Diamond uses some of the historical insights from his book to place the current CIA situation in context. He also addresses how the new President and newly appointed CIA head might tackle the challenge of overcoming past failures, specifically regarding torture, and the war on terrorism.

 "The formidable challenge facing Obama and Panetta will be to see whether they can halt the controversial intelligence policies they oppose while improving the quality of intelligence that goes into the president's morning briefing."

One last look at 2008

After the hiatus of the holidays and before we plunge into book news for 2009, I wanted to mention two books that made it on the bestsellers lists.

The China Beat mentioned Joan Judge's book, The Precious Raft of History, as the best book on Chinese women in 2008!  Judge looks at China's transition to modernity through the lens of changing perceptions of women. In particular, changes in representations of women in female biographies.  The book provides rich portraits of China's first generation of female political activists, overseas students, schoolteachers, and public writers,  who exemplified modern China.  However, Judge questions the success of these newly defined gender categories in redefining women's everyday lives.

And, 800-CEO-Read named David Herold and Don Fedor's book, Change the Way You Lead Change: Leadership Strategies that REALLY Work  as a runner up for the Best Business Book of the Year award in the HR and Business Development category.  Here is what the folks at  800-CEO-Read said about the book:

"Change has been the buzzword of the year, but only a few books have addressed change management in truly innovative and constructive ways. In Change the Way You Lead Change, Herold and Fedor examine flaws in change initiatives and take the results of their extensive research to advocate a more philosophical, holistic approach to change, starting with the leader's responsibility in understanding the context in which he or she is leading."

Congratulations to Joan Judge, David Herold and Don Fedor!