The Cold War, the Bomb, and the Professors Who Turned around CIA

On 21 May 2026, Dr Grace talked to the CSS audience about his new book, The Intelligence Intellectuals: Social Scientists and the Making of the CIA.

The attack on Pearl Harbour in December 1941 established a lasting fear in the U.S of strategic surprise, which led to the concept of a centralised intelligence agency and the creation of CIA. By early 1950, with China having turned Communist, the USSR having tested the atom bomb and the outbreak of the Korean War, CIA was considered to be failing in its mission. In his new book: The Intelligence Intellectuals. Social Scientists and the Making of the CIA (Georgetown University Press), Peter Grace shows how professors were brought into the Agency to overhaul the intelligence product and address the urgent need to understand Soviet intentions and capabilities. A leading intelligence academic has said of the book "The Intelligence Intellectuals is sure to become the standard reference for anyone seeking to understand the intellectual foundations of American intelligence analysis.”

Dr Peter Grace is a lecturer on politics and international relations at the University of Otago, New Zealand. He is coeditor of New Zealand’s Foreign Policy under the Jacinda Ardern Government.

Watch the full recording below.