| Abstract [eng] |
Ever since Donald Trump was elected President of the United States (POTUS) in 2016, tensions have been rising between him and the U.S. intelligence community (IC). There have been instances of friction among previous administrations and the IC, with Nixon and Carter harshly criticizing U.S. intelligence, however, IC’s reaction to Trump’s words and deeds has been unprecedented in its intensity. This suggests that the state of affairs has clearly deviated from the norm established by the ideal model of intelligence-policy relations. The following problem is analyzed in this thesis: why and how did the politicization of U.S. intelligence happen during the presidency of Donald Trump from 2016 to 2020? The thesis seeks to investigate instances of politicization by employing a theoretical framework based on the assumptions of the so-called traditionalist and realist schools of thought. This newly constructed model enables a fine level of analysis which is turn allows to better explain the bidirectional processes taking place, such as POTUS’s neglect and refusal to accept intelligence assessments or IC leaking classified information to the detriment of POTUS. |
