US Intelligence in WWI with Mark Stout

In this episode I’m joined by Mark Stout, a former intelligence officer with the CIA and State Department who is now a historian of intelligence and Director of programs in Global Security and Intelligence at Johns Hopkins University. Mark talks about US intelligence in World War I, which he’s currently finishing a book about. Our conversation also touches on the beginnings of the security clearance process, domestic surveillance of Prussian/German-American citizens during the war, and early attitudes among US State Department officials that intelligence activity was ungentlemanly and unbecoming of diplomats. Mark’s overview of US intelligence in WWI provides an interesting introduction to an understudied subject.