CIA shifts attention to 'complex nation-states' like China after 20 years of focus on counterterrorism
Dec 11, 2021
Washington [US], December 11 : With the aim of shifting its priority from fighting terror networks to spying on countries like China, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is reforming its training and deployment of agents around the world.
The new policy will give them a more in-depth focus on specific 'complex nation-states', CNN reported. This approach will be replicate the pre-9/11 policy and get the focus back to the "traditional and quiet tradecraft".
Previously, the war on terror emphasized military operations against Islamist terror groups. However, now the US spy agency will be trying to rebuild its intelligence-gathering capacity toward China and Russia.
Former US operations officer, Thad Troy said the agency appears to be trying to replicate some of the things that worked well before the counterterrorism wars dominated everyone's focus.
Deploying officers to a geographic area "serves a worldwide mission better because you were developing and perfecting that geographical, issue -- or in some cases, specific tradecraft expertise," Troy was quoted as saying CNN.
The report further said that the CIA has "undermanned or ignored" Chinese global penetration in resource-rich regions such as West Africa while focusing more on other targets and operations.
The US agency also needs to recruit more Mandarin speakers and regional experts, the report added. The move will also require extensive reforms in training the agency's top intelligence analysts and senior officers who recruit and run agents around the world, according to the report.
This report comes a month after the CIA announced the setting up of a new China Mission Center to confront threats from Beijing and address the global challenge posed to the United States.
"Director William Burns announced the formation of a China Mission Center (CMC) to address the global challenge posed by the People's Republic of China that cuts across all of the Agency's mission areas," CIA had said in a statement.
Emphasizing that the threat is from the Chinese government, Director Burns had said that the new Mission Center will bring a whole-of-Agency response and unify the exceptional work CIA is already doing against "this key rival."
