Sociology

With the emergence of USA as the superpower at the end of the Second World War, a lot of challenges faced her the major one being preventing an occurrence of another devastating war as was witnessed. The US military being the tool in implementing this policy, it was mobilized and fully equipped by the government which had vast resources especially from the industrial base. It was also provided with a military intelligence group better than the one which had served during the war. But prior to this, in the late 1943, much criticism had been put across regarding the military intelligence service.

Criticisms on the Intelligence Group
The secretary of war Sir. Henry L. Stemson and his secretary of the Navy Frank
Knox agreed that both their intelligence service were a pretty bum. Admiral Ernest
King of Staff complained of the overlaps and wasted efforts of various activities of the Navy and Army intelligence. Lt. Gen Joseph McCartney the armys World War 2
Deputy Chief also complained of the disorder due to constant and unsuccessful reorganization throughout the war despite its eventual good results. (Jeffreys, 2003) This showed that the intelligence groups had no clearly defined roles leading to interplay of roles between them. Also, much of its activity during the wars was based on chances with little planning.

Another problem which arose was that the military intelligence was controlled from 3,000 miles away in Washington. This form of administration slowed down reinforcement in the battlefield and derailed efforts in making timely adjustments according to the actual field experience. (Finnegan, 1998)

The Rise Of The True American Intelligence Community
The American Intelligence Community came into being in 1947 during the Cold War (1945-1991). This was way after the attack of the 7th December Pear Harbor in 1941 by the Japanese and the Second World War (1939-1945). A lot of forums for reforms had taken place and they ended up in the passage of the National Security Act. This resulted in a joint intelligence committee that combined both the military intelligence departments the CIA and the DCI.

The Change Of Priority
The Cold War (19451991) involved wrangles of states which resulted into conflicts in politics with some taking a democratic mode of governance while the Soviet Union opted for the communism mode. Military tension was also at its peak posed by the USSR especially in controlling her from ammunition and bomb manufacturing. Economic rivalry became the order of the day between the super powers with Western Europe and the United States against the Soviet Union.  All these called for a change of priority within the operation of the intelligence service. This called for a shift and expansion from the military and navy intelligence group to the formation of an economic intelligence group whose role was to inform the government on trade negotiations, emerging markets and on ways to reduce the trade deficit. (Transforming U.S. Intelligence, 2005)

United States national security was then viewed in a much broader perspective after the World Wars whereby the intelligence capabilities looked beyond defensive protection into offensive protection of the economy. This therefore led to the development of an aggressive macro-level intelligence group to look into all aspects of the economic policy.

The Intelligence Community Today
The US Intelligence community currently has the following major components within it
Department of State, Bureau of Intelligence and Research
Defense Intelligence Agency
 National Security Council
 Office of the Director of Central Intelligence
 Central Intelligence Agency
 Army Intelligence and Security Command
 Navy Operational Intelligence Center
 Air Force Foreign Technology Division
 Unified and Specified Command Intelligence Directorates
 National Security Agency