This SDG will seek to understand the relationship between American Foreign Policy and the CIA in the 21st Century examining the good, the bad and the ugly. The core book is Tim Weiner's The Mission: The CIA in the 21st Century, which is based on-the-record interviews with six former CIA directors and scores of spies, station chiefs, and top operations officers. The Mission is the gripping and revelatory story of the modern CIA, from 9/11, to the covert operations in Afghanistan, the pivot to Iraq, Weapons of Mass Destruction, Black sites, "enhanced interrogation techniques", the killing of Osama bin Laden, drone warfare, Russia's influence on US elections, the winding down of the War in Afghanistan, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the rise of China, the relationship between the Agency and Presidents G. W. Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden and concluding with the Agency's own fight for survival under the current president. The Mission is Tim Weiner's epic successor to Legacy of Ashes, his National Book Award–winning classic about the CIA's first sixty years. We will also view several films relevant to the topic, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Snowden, Zero Dark Thirty, and The Report. We will try to answer the question of what impact the Agency should have and will have on US Foreign Policy in the future.

‍