1. Intelligence Transparency and Foreign Threats to Elections: Responsibilities, Risks, and Recommendations
- Author:
- Carrie Cordero
- Publication Date:
- 07-2020
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Center for a New American Security
- Abstract:
- As the United States nears a consequential November election in a charged political environment and society reels this year from a global pandemic, historic unemployment, and a summer of civic unrest and violence, the threat of malign foreign interference in the campaign season and election system looms. In 2016, policymakers and intelligence community leaders were reluctant to release information publicly regarding the activities of the Russian government intended to affect the election. This year, a new playbook is needed to ensure that the intelligence community, policymakers, and the public are in sync regarding transparency expectations about foreign threats to the election. The discussion that follows provides context—how intelligence transparency was addressed in the 2016 election, adjustments that were made for the 2018 midterms—and articulates responsibilities of the intelligence community versus the risks involved in greater transparency. The paper concludes with recommendations for transparency about election threats in order to protect against and mitigate ongoing foreign efforts to damage our stressed democracy.
- Topic:
- Government, Intelligence, Elections, and Democracy
- Political Geography:
- Russia, North America, and United States of America