Wippl Interviewed for Journal Article on Intelligence Studies
Joseph Wippl, Professor of the Practice of International Relations at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, was recently interviewed for a a journal article on the importance of intelligence studies in higher education.
Wippl was interviewed for an article entitled “To Hear the Grass Grow: A Conversation With Former CIA Operations Officer Joseph Wippl,” in the Journal for Intelligence, Propaganda, and Security Studies.
From the text of the interview:
Wippl: It’s obviously extremely important. The leaders in this area are the British. They have a really terrific tradition of intelligence studies, beginning with Chris Andrew and now Richard Aldrich. When I go to intelligence studies conventions, there are always an incredible number of very capable British academics. The Israelis are obviously also very interested in this, and even the French. I feel that we [the Americans] are behind the British. There are many places in the U.S. where they do not even want to touch the stuff. I think the problem for Europe and especially Germany given its responsibilities in the modern world, is that it needs to not only have a strong intelligence service, but academic study of it as well because it’s so important in the formulation of policy. You’ve got a long way to go, Siegfried!
Wippl is a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer. He spent a 30 year career as an operations officer in the National Clandestine Service (NCS). Wippl has served overseas as an operations officer and operations manager in Bonn, West Germany; Guatemala City; Luxembourg; Madrid, Spain; Mexico City; Vienna, Austria; and Berlin, Germany.