Queering intelligence studies

ABSTRACT

This essay proposes ‘queering’ Intelligence Studies through a critical analysis of recent U.S. Intelligence Community diversity initiatives that aim to create workplaces more inclusive of LGBTQ members. In doing so, the essay advances queer theory as a resource that can improve intelligence organizing through critique of dominant approaches to diversity management. Shifting from a focus on identity categories to normativity can reveal entrenched institutional assumptions and inequities that undermine diversity initiatives. The essay also describes how queer theory complicates the uncritical celebration of LGBTQ inclusivity within the U.S. Intelligence Community.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interests were reported by the authors.

Notes

1. See IC Equal Employment Opportunity and Diversity Office, Diversity and Inclusion.

2. Van Puyvelde and Curtis, “Standing on the Shoulders of Giants.”

3. McDonald, “Difference and Intersectionality.”

4. Compton and Dougherty, “Organizing Sexuality,” 875.

5. Ibid., 876.

6. CIA, “Director’s Diversity in Leadership Study,” 26. We generally mirror the IC’s use of the acronym “LGTB” in this essay when discussing IC discourse and documents and use the more common “LGBTQ” when referring to non-IC documents or contexts.

7. Bean, “Intelligence Theory”; and de Werd, “Critical Intelligence.”

8. IC Equal Employment Opportunity and Diversity Office, Diversity and Inclusion, 4.

9. Jagose, Queer Theory, 1–2.

10. Foucault, The History of Sexuality.

11. Berlant and Warner, “Sex in Public,” 548.

12. Butler, Gender Trouble.

13. Duggan, “Making it Perfectly Queer,” 155, emphasis in original.

14. Warner, “Introduction,” xxvi.

15. Cohen, “Punks, Bulldaggers,” 463.

16. See, for example, Cohen, “Punks, Bulldaggers”; Conrad, Against Equality; Fischer, Terrorizing Gender; and Spade, Normal Life.

17. In her book, Gender, Sexuality, and Intelligence Studies: The Spy in the Closet, Manjikian argues that U.S. foreign policy has always been “queer,” and she invites readers to use the lens of queer theory to examine U.S. intelligence institutions. We see Manjikian’s work as a much-needed contribution to the broader project of developing a critical intelligence studies, but our understanding of queer theory, at times, diverges from Manjikian’s. Nevertheless, elaboration of these differences requires a conceptual detour outside the scope and purpose of this article, which focuses on the IC’s diversity and inclusion initiatives, an area not explored in Manjikian’s volume.

18. Bean, No More Secrets; Bean, “Intelligence Theory”; and Fischer, Terrorizing Gender.

19. McDonald, “Organizational Communication”; and IC Equal Employment Opportunity and Diversity Office, Diversity and Inclusion.

20. McDonald, “Organizational Communication.”

21. Nolan, “Ethnographic Research.”

22. McDonald, “Difference and Intersectionality,” 273.

23. Ibid.

24. See note 1 above.

25. Nolan, “Information Sharing.”

26. See https://www.intelligence.gov/mission.

27. Hall, “Coming out as Transgender,” para. 17.

28. McDonald, “Organizational Communication,” 323.

29. McDonald, “Difference and Intersectionality,” 276.

30. IC Equal Employment Opportunity and Diversity Office, Diversity and Inclusion, 6.

31. See note 25 above.

32. Eguchi, “Negotiating Hegemonic Masculinity.”

33. Mumby, “Organizing Men.”

34. SXSW, “America’s LGTB Spies,” 6.

35. Ibid., 12–13.

36. Ibid., 26.

37. Ibid., 29, emphasis in original.

38. Ibid., 20, emphasis in original.

39. Ibid., 6.

40. Ibid., 22.

41. Ibid., 7.

42. Ibid., 13.

43. Ibid., 18.

44. Ibid., 22.

45. Ibid., 30.

46. Ibid., 29.

47. Ibid., 25.

48. Rumens, “Is Your Workplace ‘Gay-Friendly’?” 190.

49. See note 28 above.

50. See, for example, Johnson, The Lavender Scare.

51. Human Rights Campaign, “Grassroots Activists.”

52. Department of Defense, Report of the Comprehensive.

53. Eng, The Feeling of Kinship.

54. Obama, “Statement by the President.”

55. For critical analyses of this crucial omission see, for example, Spade, “Under the Cover”; and Fischer, Terrorizing Gender.

56. Hussain, “It’s Time for America.”

57. Puar, Terrorist Assemblages.

58. Herskovitz, “‘Secret Agents of Change’.”

59. See FBI Jobs, “Working at FBI. Diversity.”

60. Ibid.

61. Cited in Compton, “After Troubled History.”

62. Cited in CIA, CIA Diversity and Inclusion, 1.

63. Ibid., 3.

64. All quotes are from the CIA website, “Diversity Impact,” para. 3–4, 8.

65. Puar, Terrorist Assemblages, 38–39.

66. Bean, “U.S. National Security Culture.”

67. Hall, “Coming out as Transgender,” para. 11, 18, 20.

68. Fischer, “Contingent Belonging.”

69. Ryer, “Former Surgeon General.”

70. Cited in Leff, “Panel Urges End,” para. 13.

71. Cited in Brydum, “Pentagon on Trans Troops,” para. 5.

72. Gereben et al., Assessing the Implications.

73. Lynch, “U.S. Attorney General.”

74. Cited in Frazin, “LGBTQ Staffers Decry Discrimination.”

75. Ibid.

76. Reddy, Freedom with Violence.

77. Ibid., 8.

78. Bendl, Fleischmann, and Walenta, “Diversity Management.”

79. Compton and Dougherty, “Organizing Sexuality.”

80. Marrin, “Improving Intelligence Studies,” 266.

81. Ibid., 269.

82. Craig, “Communication Theory.”

83. Marrin, “Evaluating Intelligence Theories,” 486.

84. Bean, “Intelligence Theory.”

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Hamilton Bean

Hamilton Bean is associate professor of Communication at the University of Colorado Denver, where he also serves as director of the International Studies program. His research focuses on Communication and Security. He is coeditor of the Handbook of Communication and Security (Routledge, 2019). He worked for a private intelligence contractor in Washington DC from 2001 to 2005.

Mia Fischer

Mia Fischer is an assistant professor of Communication at the University of Colorado Denver and author of Terrorizing Gender: Transgender Visibility and the Surveillance Practices of the U.S. Security State (University of Nebraska Press, 2019). Her work focuses on the intersections of critical media, queer, transgender, and surveillance studies.