The danger here is in thinking about Africa simply in terms of either this terrorist threat

or also another thing that people talk about is that, well, if we don't do something,

then the Russians are going to move in, or if we don't do something, then the Chinese are

going to move in.

With regard to the Chinese, that boat has already sailed.

But the worst possible thing to do is to engage in any of these countries to get involved

in any of these things for the sake of fending off the Russians, for the sake of fending off the Chinese or for the sake of some concern that they're going to people in Mali are going to organize terrorist attacks in New York City.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back.

I hope you're ready for another episode of Change Agents,

an Ironclad original presented by Firecracker Farm.

Now, let's dive in. How does one become a political analyst at the CIA?

How does this pipeline work?

It's actually really funny how that worked.

I mean, like everybody else, I applied on the website, which got me nowhere, probably like anybody else. But it was until www.cana.com or probably for it. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Or.gov or whatever it was. Oh, it is probably. This was 2003, 2004, and it got me nowhere. And then I met a guy who I went out with him for lunch. And he says, well, what do you want to do? Because I was a university professor at the time. And I wanted to get out of academia. And I said, I thought it'd be cool to be a CIA analyst. And he said, I can help you with that because he was a former NSC guy who knew people. So but then, but then, and I think this is funny, but this is the funny part, he said that

I would probably get an easier time getting a job if I said I wanted to work in Africa.

And I said, okay, I can do that.

Pardon?

What year was that?

2003 or four. I think he was the one who told me that. It was either that or his CIA friend

whom he connected me with. Either he or she then said, like, you should say that you want

to work on Africa. And I was game. I mean, my backgrounds actually were European history, not Africa, although I was interested in Africa, but I thought, yeah, I could do that, you know, and they speak French.

So, yeah, why not?

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