The Contemporary Presidency: Presidents, Lawmakers, and Spies: Intelligence Accountability in the United States

Since the end of the Second World War, intelligence accountability (“oversight”) in the United States has gone through five major phases: an Era of Trust (1947‐74); an Era of Uneasy Partnership (1975‐1986); an Era of Distrust (1987‐1991); an Era of Partisan Advocacy (1992‐2001); and an Era of Ambivalence (2002‐ ). The major obstacles hindering effective oversight have been the motivation of individual lawmakers and the willingness of the executive branch to share information with overseers on Capitol Hill. Overall, intelligence oversight has been a story of spotty efforts by lawmakers to carry out these duties on a regular basis, relying instead on ad hoc responses to scandals and major intelligence failures after they arise.