The Nigerian Civil War and the Biases of American Intelligence Analysis with Judd Devermont

From July 1966 to January 1970, Nigerians fought a civil war which led to the deaths of more than half a million people. Looking back at the American attempts to understand what was happening offers an opportunity to assess how intelligence analysts responded to a foreign policy challenge. In this episode we talk with Judd Devermont about the American intelligence community’s biases in its analysis of the Nigerian Civil War and its influence on American policy. Devermont is the director of the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He has worked at the CIA, National Security Council, and in the office of the Director of National Intelligence. His article “The US intelligence community's biases during the Nigerian civil war” was published in African Affairs. Devermont is the host of the podcast “Into Africa.”

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