RELATIONS WITH THE ACADEMIC COMMUNITY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP86B00985R000300080001-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 9
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 14, 2001
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: December 30, 1977
• Content Type: PAPER

Sensitive Intelligence Sources and Methods Involved
NATIONAL SECURITY INFORMATION
Unauthorized Disclosure Subject to Criminal Sanctions
&NONE&
TOP SECRET
(Security Classification)
NAME AND ADDRES
v mom-
ACTION
AP R[IUAL .___
CilNCURF
REMARKS:
2,W1A
SNI1"IALS
(Security Class if i c--,-Jr-0
E TALENT- KEYHOLE - COMINT
Access to this document will be restricted to
those approved for the following specific activities:
w
ease
r--- TOP SECRET
Warning Notice
 Approved For Release 2006/10/18: CIA-RDP86B00985R000300080001-0
NOFORN- Not Releasable to Foreign Nationals
NOCONTRACT- Not Releasable to Contractors or
Contractor/Consultants
PROPIN- Caution-Proprietary Information Involved
USIBONLY- USIB Departments Only
ORCON- Dissemination and Extraction of Information
Controlled by Originator
REL. . .- This Information has been Authorized for
Release to ...
Approved For Release 2006/10/18: CIA-RDP86B00985R000300080001-0
 Approved For Release 2006/10/18: CIA-RDP86B00985R000300080001-0
30 December 1977
MEMORANDUM FOR: x
SUBJECT . The DCI's Annual Report
We have now received the IC Staff's draft of
the Annual Report, on which our comments are invited.,
Attached is the section(s) which you contributed to
or may wish to comment on. May I please have your
reactions by Noon, 4 January, so that I may put
together an NFAC response.
Approved For Release 2006/10/18: CIA-RDP86B00985R000300080001-0.
 oar 74 U~: Approved For Release 2006/ t1VAt-IF~0098580003000;80001-0
Relations with the Academic Community
The Central Intelligence Agency's dialogue with -'^
specialists in academia and private research has broadene
and intensified during the last year or so. Even at
Harvard, where restrictive guidelines governing relation-
ships between faculty and staff and the Intelligence Com-
munity have been promulgated, and at other campuses long
unfriendly to the. Agency, there seems to be a greater
willingness by faculty and students to distinguish between
concern over past CIA abuses and the. current realities of
our work. Improvements have resulted from changing attitudes
on campus, a constricted job market for scholars, and
other external factors, as well as from the expansion and
enhancement of our academic relations program. (U)
In December 1976 the position of the Academic Coordi-
nator, which during the preceding ten years had been the
part-time responsibility of one officer, was broadened and
upgraded. Two full-time officers were assigned the port-
folio, which was augmented to include coordination of
relationships with private research centers. Later, with
the formulation of the National Foreign Assessment Center,
the program was additionally upgraded. Two full-time,
HANDLE VIA
L~N 1':(EYii0LE-COMIN Top SLUM-
CON TROL SYSTEMS JO.NTLY
Aoarov._ed For Release 2006/10/18: CIA=RDP86B009 5580.003000800 __-
 Approved For Release 20QO/1 b18~ - P 6B00985R00030g080001-0
middle management officers formed the core of the new
Academic*Relations staff. They conduct independent pro-
grams, coordinate the expanding efforts of NFAC officers
to improve their ties in academia, and are initiating new
programs. In addition, the staff will act as the secretariat
for the NFAC Senior Review Panel, the scholar-in-residence
program, and other such activities. (U)
The Academic Relations staff maintains regular contact
with about 200 leading scholars at universities around the
country. During the first ten months of 1977, 32 unclassified.
Agency publications on Soviet, Chinese, and Latin American.
subjects were mailed to a total of over a hundred experts in
those fields. Approximately 40 other scholars, most of whom
are directors of university international studies programs
or private research centers, receive copies of other Agency
publications. The requests of approximately 70 more scholars
for copies of Agency publications or information also were
filled by the Academic Relations staff between January and
October 1977: (U)
In addition, some NFAC offices maintain their own
mailing lists of scholars working in particular disciplines.
The Office of Economic Research, for example, sends copies
.235
25X1
HANAL9 VIA
OP SECRET
Approved For Release 2006/10/18: CIA-RDP86B00985R000300080 -
 Approved For Release 2006/10/18: CIA-RDP86B00985R000300080001-0
Nkww'No
.
CL SYZT".P.72; .0*iv1'LY
of many of its unclassified publications to over 300
economists in the private sector, two-thirds of whom are
academicians. All of these efforts help to keep prestigious
scholars apprised of some of the Agency's latest research
and analysis and provide our analysts with expert review of
their work from outside the government. (U)
Outside support for our analytical efforts is provided
in other ways as well. Approximately 40 scholars from
universities and private research centers visited the Agency--
to consult with 'analysts' under arrangements made by the
Academic Relations staff between January and October 1977.
These informal, unpaid consultations were mutually rewarding
in most cases. Many analysts also conduct consultations like
these independently, of course. (U)
Formal, paid consultations also are increasing. Research
offices maintain panels of academic experts to provide con-
tinuing advice on production programs, and the Academic
Relations staff is developing a list of other scholars who
will be called on to consult individually or collectively
on future production. Five prominent specialists on Brazil
in several disciplines were recently engaged as consultants
to advise on a National Intelligence Estimate. Arrangements
like this will be a routine aspect of NFAC's expanded academic
relations program. (U)
H, NCLt: o
".A
Top
Approved For Release 2006/10/18: CIA-RDP86B00985R000300.080001-0
 Approved For Release 2006/101 ) C'F RDP 9BO0985R000300080001-0
A new program of dinner symposia with the Director,
interested Agency officers and academic experts is also
managed by the Academic Coordinator. Offices make unilateral
arrangements for consultations as well; through its academic
relations committee, the Office of Regional and Political
Analysis conducts a guest speaker program under which scholars
are paid to make presentations and consult with analysts for
a day. (U)
Perhaps the clearest indication of the progress that has
recently been made in improving the Agency's ties with
academia is the growing participation of our specialists
at academic and professional conferences. Between January
and October of 1977 approximately 250 of our people attended
150 conferences, conventions, and symposia in their areas
of interest. More and more of our'sp'ecialists"are_being
asked to make presentations at these affairs, and the Academic
Relations Staff has helped to stimulate interest both in
the Agency and among conference.-,program chairpeople. More
than 30 analysts presented scholarly papers as panelists at
these meetings last year, including an entire panel made up
of CIA specialists at the national convention of the Inter-
national Studies Association in March. (U)
237 .
HANCLr- V'A' - r zfi1mr
Approved For Release 2006/10/18: CIA-R DP86B00985R000300080001-_
kAUENT,7 N: TOP S "C T-1. rT
 ri
Approved For Release 2006/10/'18 : C~tA=07p$`6k0985R000300080001-0
A variety of other contacts with the academic community
also are flourishing. Thirteen student and academic groups
visited the Agency under NFAC/DDI auspices during the
first ten months in 1977. Most were briefed by a senior
official and toured the Operations Center, and some also
heard substantive briefings from analysts. NFAC/DDI
representatives accepted fourteen invitations to speak on
campuses around the country during the same time period.
In all instances the visits were highly successful and-un-
controversial. There might be many more campus speaking
engagements by our people, except for the restrictions im-
posed by Agency regulations which prohibit our soliciting
invitations or advertising our availability. This year,
one NFAC specialist is on a teaching sabbatical on campus
professor is a scholar-in-residence
in ORPA. Both of these programs will be expended. (U)
and a tenured
Relations between the Agency and private research
centers and their specialists have expanded as well. The
Academic Relations Staff has opened a tentative dialogue
with the directors of approximately 30 "think tanks,"' most
of them affiliated with universities, and has under considera-
tion many others that offer competence in areas of interest
to NFAC research managers. Contacts with other research
centers, particularly several in the Washington area, have
increased markedly during the last year or so. (U)
238
.CL SY5T'~r+~4. .. cJ;Nmv
.9. n .y - - . ; >. Y--1"
iur ou :,!
pprovedPor Release "2006/'1-01-1-8& :-EFA-RDP86B00985R00030008
 Approved For Release 2006/10/18: CIA-RDP86B00985R000300080001-0
Other aspects of the academic relations program have
been effective as well. A periodic newsletter, "Notes on
Academic Relations," is circulated to all analysts in NFAC.
The Academic Relations Staff composes this publication
with the main objective of informing analysts of developments
in Agency-academic relations, of the areas of competence of
certain research centers, of participation by our people at
conferences and meetings. These and other efforts now being
considered are important means of keeping intelligence
specialists informed of one another's outside and academic
activities, as well as keeping them abreast of developments
in academia that may be relevant to their own research. (U)
239
HANDLE VIA
TALENT-K Yr?!OL .COMINT TOP ROL SYSTEMS JOINTLY _._ . _. _ ._ ._... # , . -._
pTo-ved-F rr"R-ele-as-e-2d66tt-r`18-ClA= P861 05ROOO300086661=@