The secretive environment in which intelligence officers work has perpetuated a culture ill-suited to interagency cooperation. The starting point for change is distinguishing among the DO's activities. Liaison means sharing information and working with foreign intelligence and police services. It is not without risk, depending on the country, for it associates the CIA with the actions of those foreign services. But it is in a different category from espionage - persuading foreigners with money, ideology, or other inducements to provide information, secretly, on their country's politics and institutions.
Covert action is the opposite of espionage.
Covert action, by contrast, seeks to influence events in foreign countries. The foreign connection is asked to act, and the risk increases that the secret connection to the CIA and to the United States will be revealed. T he scope of clandestine efforts should be narrowed to focus on potential foes proximate to deployed U.S. troops, the governments of a small number of potentially destabilizing rogue states, groups that threaten to engage in terrorist activities against the United States, and countries with nuclear capabilities. The cost and riskiness of clandestine operations warrants their judicious use only when the information obtained covertly would be likely to enhance significantly U.S. national security. Even if that figure is high, it is wasteful for clandestine collectors to gather so much publicly available information.