The CIA and the new cold war: what history tells us about its influence today – podcast

This episode of The Conversation’s In Depth Out Loud podcast tells the inside story of the CIA v Russia – from cold war conspiracy to “black” propaganda in Ukraine.

Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones, a professor emeritus of American history at the University of Edinburgh, writes that with formidable Kremlinologist William J. Burns
now in charge of the CIA, the agency might be expected to be an influential player in the US response to a “new cold war”. But how much does Washington trust the CIA these days – and how much influence does it really have on events in Ukraine? To shed light on these questions, he takes us back to the early days of the Ronald Reagan presidency.

The audio version of this article is narrated by Sam Scholl in partnership with Noa, News Over Audio. Listen to more articles from The Conversation, for free, on the Noa app.

This story came out of a project at The Conversation called Insights, which generates long-form journalism and is working with academics from a wide range of backgrounds who have been engaged in projects to tackle societal and scientific challenges. You can read more stories in the series here.

The music in In Depth Out Loud is Night Caves, by Lee Rosevere. In Depth Out Loud is produced by Gemma Ware.