ABOUT THIS BOOK

An in-depth analysis of why COVID-19 warnings failed and how to avert the next disaster

Epidemiologists and national security agencies warned for years about the potential for a deadly pandemic, but in the end global surveillance and warning systems were not enough to avert the COVID-19 disaster. In The COVID-19 Intelligence Failure, Erik J. Dahl demonstrates that understanding how intelligence warnings work—and how they fail—shows why the years of predictions were not enough.

In the first in-depth analysis of the topic, Dahl examines the roles that both traditional intelligence services and medical intelligence and surveillance systems play in providing advance warning against public health threats—and how these systems must be improved for the future. For intelligence to effectively mitigate threats, specific, tactical-level warnings must be collected and shared in real time with receptive decision makers who will take appropriate action. Dahl shows how a combination of late and insufficient warnings about COVID-19, the Trump administration’s political aversion to scientific advice, and decentralized public health systems all exacerbated the pandemic in the United States. Dahl’s analysis draws parallels to other warning failures that preceded major catastrophes from Pearl Harbor to 9/11, placing current events in context.

The COVID-19 Intelligence Failure is a wake-up call for the United States and the international community to improve their national security, medical, and public health intelligence systems and capabilities.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Erik J. Dahl is an associate professor in the National Security Affairs Department and a faculty member of the Center for Homeland Defense and Security at the US Naval Postgraduate School. He is the author of Intelligence and Surprise Attack: Failure and Success from Pearl Harbor to 9/11 and Beyond (Georgetown University Press, 2013).

REVIEWS

"This book will be foundational in understanding how US intelligence can contribute to the efforts of other government and non-government experts to prepare for future non-conventional national security threats."

-- Robert P. George, director, James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions, Princeton University

Overall, Erik Dahl’s book is a most worthy and enjoyable read. It adds to the important academic and policy literature regarding debates on the COVID-19 pandemic and its origins, as well as its profound intelligence failure.

-- The Cipher Brief

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Are Pandemics a National Security Problem?

2. What Is the Role of the U.S. Intelligence Community?

3. The Medical Intelligence, Surveillance, and Warning System

4. Was the Coronavirus Pandemic an Intelligence Failure?

5. Intelligence and Warning for the Future

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Index

About the Author