Reviews and commentary

Lifting bob Woodward's veil

Bob Woodward : VEIL : The Secret Wars of the CIA 1981–1987 Simon &; Schuster, New York, 1987, 543 p., $21.95.

His “Cover” Is Undercover

Steve Posner: Israel Undercover: Secret Warfare &; Hidden Diplomacy in the Middle East Syracuse University Press, Syracuse, N.Y., 1987, 350 p., $17.95.

Democracy and Intelligence: An Uneasy Compatibility

Stephen J. Cimbala, ed.: Intelligence and Intelligence Policy in a Democratic Society Transnational Publishers, Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., 262 p., $37.50.

A Much‐Needed Primer

Herbert E. Meyer: R eal‐ World In teltigence. Weidenfeld &; Nicolson, New York, 1987, 102 p., $14.95.

Agee Finds Two Friends

Jonathan Bloch and Patrick Fitzgerald (introduction by Philip Agee): British Intelligence and Covert Action Brandon Book Publishers Ltd., Kerry, Ireland, 1983, 284 p., PB, $9.95.

Questionable Secrets‐Questionable Sources

Fabrizio Calviand Olivier Schmidt: Intelligences secretes — Annales de l'espionnage Hachette, Paris, 1988, 309 p., 148 Fr. fr.

Scaling the Wall

Vladimir Solovyov and Elena Klepikova: Behind the High Kremlin Walls Dodd, Mead, New York, 1986, 248 p., $17.95.

The USSR As a Counterintelligence State

John J. Dziak: Chekisty: A History of the KGB Heath/Lexington Books, Lexington, Mass., 1988, 234 p., $17.95.     

Terrorists and Laser Weapons Use: An Emergent Threat

The trends leading to the emergent threat of terrorist laser weapons use are that a military weaponry transition from conventional to Directed Energy Weapons is taking place; that laser weapons offer clear tactical and operational advantages over conventional weapons; that laser prices are dropping while laser performance is increasing; that criminals, criminal-soldiers, and foreign militaries have all utilized laser devices and weapons for counteroptical purposes; and that criminal-soldiers are evolving and getting more sophisticated from both an organizational and weaponry use perspective. This article will look at the aforementioned trends, analyze them, and then offer some concluding thoughts concerning terrorist laser weapons use futures.     

Israeli State Violence during the Second Intifada: Combining New Institutionalist and Rational Choice Approaches

In attempting to explain Israel's retaliatory policies toward Palestinian violence, new institutionalist and rational choice theories vie for dominance. This article argues that both approaches can contribute to understanding the severity of Israel's response if they are viewed as nested explanations appropriate to different threat levels. The article makes its case using data from 74 interviews with senior Israeli counterterrorist experts (2006–07), counts of Israeli and Palestinian fatalities due to state and collective violence (1987–2007), and a database of collective violence events during the Second Intifada (2000–05). Institutional effects are evident at low threat levels, as new institutionalists predict, but these effects are overwhelmed at high threat levels, as rational choice theorists assert.     

Interviews with Killers: Six Types of Combatants and Their Motivations for Joining Deadly Groups

Interviews conducted with leaders, combatants, witnesses, and victims in central Nigeria provide insight into the processes of volunteerism, recruitment, and indoctrination within armed groups. Identified are numerous avenues by which previously nonviolent citizens become willing perpetrators in deadly grass-roots conflict. Despite a commonly advertised motive for joining, narrative analyses reveal several diverse and underlying motivations. Six distinct combatant typologies are described: the Follower, the Pragmatist, the Criminal, the Soldier, the Basic Needs, and the Ideologue. The characteristics of each type, the timing of their entry into the conflict, and the implication for select intervention strategies are discussed.     

Clinical Considerations for the Treatment of Latency Age Children in Residential Care

Children in the United States are exposed to alarmingly high rates of violence and trauma. Notable are the rates of maltreatment among children and the heightened risk for both out of home placement and an array of developmental, behavioral, and psychosocial sequelae. Despite these risks, little information is available on effective interventions and services designed to address the complex needs of youth in residential treatment settings. To effectively respond to their unique developmental, behavioral, and emotional needs, trauma-informed interventions and services must be provided to support optimal outcomes. To this end, this paper delineates the prevalence of children in residential care secondary to chronic maltreatment and other trauma exposures, identifies behavioral and emotional issues through the theoretical framework of complex trauma, highlights the importance of organizational capacity to deliver trauma-informed services, and describes effective clinical interventions that are often used in residential treatment. Clinical considerations and recommendations are also provided.     

Do Better Monitoring Institutions Increase Leadership Quality in Community Organizations? Evidence from Uganda

We offer a framework for analyzing the impact of monitoring—a commonly recommended solution to poor leadership—on the quality of democratically elected leaders in community organizations in low‐income countries. In our model, groups may face a trade‐off between leader ability and effort. If the group's ability to monitor the leader is low, then the leader may exert too little effort. A higher level of monitoring increases leader effort, raising the value of the public good. However, more intense monitoring may also drive higher‐ability members to opt out of candidacy, reducing public‐goods value. The result is an inverted U‐shaped relationship between the level of monitoring and the value of the public good. The trade‐off between leader effort and ability, however, only exists in the presence of sufficient private‐income opportunities. These predictions are assessed using original data gathered from Ugandan farmer associations.