The CIA and the Culture of Failure follows the CIA through a series of crises from the Soviet collapse to the war in Iraq and explains the political pressures that helped lead to the greatest failures in U.S. intelligence history.

The CIA and the end of the Cold War -- Intervention, restraint, and Soviet collapse -- Intelligence and the Persian Gulf War -- Iraq is ten feet tall -- Aldrich Ames and the decline of human intelligence -- Known unknowns -- Targeting bin Laden -- The Malaysia meeting : tracking the hijackers -- Desert mirage.