How Academics Shaped the CIA
In this episode of What Happens Next, host Larry Bernstein talks with New Zealand‑based scholar Peter Grace about his new book, *The Intelligence Intellectuals*, which chronicles how American academics were recruited into the CIA’s Research and Analysis Division after World War II. Grace explains how figures like William Donovan and Sherman Kent brought social‑science methods—history, economics, anthropology, psychology—to intelligence work, creating systematic processes that still shape CIA analysis today. The conversation also explores the shift from wartime OSS practices to Cold‑War strategic forecasting, the deep ties between elite universities and the agency, and why the academic‑intelligence partnership has waned since Vietnam.
What Will Success and Failure Be in the Iran War
In this episode of What Happens Next, host Larry Bernstein talks with Hal Brands, a Johns Hopkins professor and former strategic planner for the U.S. Secretary of War, about how success and failure will be measured in the ongoing Iran...