2026年4月6日 美国东部时间5:57 / 美联社
如果你在尼克松政府之后上过学，大概率曾接触过《中情局世界概况》——这本涵盖全球及其所有居民的地图与参考手册，几乎获得了所有人的认可。
或许你曾为了明天就要交的社会研究课作业，从软盘或光盘里翻阅过其中部分内容；或是为了寻找拉脱维亚，翻遍了国家列表——毕竟下周的模拟联合国你要代表这个国家。更棒的是，当你亲手捧着实体版《世界概况》展开地图时，可能第一次意识到：你们朋友间互相比出的竖起大拇指的手势，在中东部分地区、欧洲和阿根廷被视为低俗侮辱。
谁曾想到？六十多年来，《世界概况》和它的读者们一直知晓这些信息。
它的编撰者是全球顶尖的情报收集者之一，他们贡献了数千张照片，将精心整理的数据库保持更新并免费向公众开放。官方给出的理由关乎地缘政治与理念。但既然我们谈论的是事实，那么另一点同样属实：1975年《世界概况》公开时，美国国会正曝光包括中情局在内的美国情报机构的滥用职权行为，而该手册发布时附带了崇高的宗旨声明。
中情局在手册中写道：“我们与各国人民分享这些事实，因为我们相信，了解真相是自由社会正常运转的基础。”
如今这家情报机构不再分享这些内容了。
2月4日，特朗普政府突然关停了这本被广泛认可的、记录人类及其旗帜、国家、习俗、军事和边界的手册。中情局将此举称为机构核心任务发生变化后的进步之举。
《世界概况》的粉丝们掀起了巨大的悲痛浪潮。许多人表示，他们哀悼的是一个重视知识本身价值的美国。一些人则在这位总统治下看到了更黑暗的势力——无论在战争还是和平时期，其政府都曾提及“另类事实”。
“保持好奇心吧，”中情局在给《世界概况》的“温情告别”中如此建议。
它或许还可以补充一句：在充斥着虚假信息且时常不准确的互联网和人工智能世界中，想要分辨何为真相，祝你好运。
早在谷歌成为日常动词数十年前，《世界概况》就已存在。
《世界概况》的起源
它的起源与1941年日本突袭珍珠港事件密不可分——这次美国情报失误促使美国采取更协调的方式，收集和整理有关敌方的情报。“陆海军联合情报研究计划”由此诞生，这是美国首个跨部门基础情报项目。但到了1946年，国家安全专家乔治·S·佩蒂说道：“和平的运作涉及所有国家、所有人类活动——而非仅仅是敌人及其战时生产。”
根据中情局官网信息，1947年，收集其他国家基础情报的任务被交给了新成立的中情局。
冷战时期，人们愈发需要一站式的基础情报来源，这也为1971年首次以非保密形式发布的《世界概况》提供了契机。该手册于四年后对公众开放。
除了对学生群体颇具实用性，它还拥有地缘政治影响力。《世界概况》向苏联及其他敌对国家展示了美国的情报能力。被收录进手册本身，就能为一个国家或反对党赋予合法性。而这家因需求而诞生并始终恪守保密原则的机构，却向公众分享了如此多被称为“基础情报”的数据，这本身就颇具讽刺意味。
《世界概况》也可能有助于提升中情局的公众形象，将其与其他因国会调查而名誉受损的情报机构拉开距离。1975年，爱达荷州民主党参议员弗兰克·丘奇召集了一个委员会，举行了100多场公开听证会（多数进行了电视转播），这是二战以来对情报机构最重大的一次监督行动。
1976年，丘奇委员会报告称，中情局、国税局、国家安全局和联邦调查局存在广泛滥用职权行为，其中包括披露中情局的“家族珠宝”档案。这是一份关于中情局非法活动的内部记录，比如监视美国活动人士以及针对古巴领导人菲德尔·卡斯特罗的暗杀阴谋。
同样在1975年，后来成为《中情局世界概况》的手册对公众开放，并逐渐成为课堂作业中经常推荐的可靠研究工具。没有确凿证据表明当时的负面宣传推动了《世界概况》的大范围发布，但在同一时间点公开，恰好契合了中情局修复自身品牌形象的需求。
1981年，中情局将该出版物更名为《世界概况》；1997年，它上线了官网。中情局将其描述为“我国部分最顶尖分析人才努力的卓越结晶”。
全球各界的反应
《世界概况》停更的消息不仅震惊了美国学生和研究人员，还被海外媒体报道。这一话题在社交媒体上迅速传播，红迪网用户互相分享存档的《世界概况》链接，并争相寻找其他可能足够可靠的无偏见信息来源。
阿拉巴马州奥本大学化学图书馆助理教授伊莎贝尔·阿尔塔米拉诺表示，相关信息依然存在，但“查找难度会变大”。例如，大学图书馆会为学生提供类似资源，而学生们通过学费已经获得了访问权限。
“它曾经那么便捷，因为所有信息都集中在一处，”她在采访中说道，并指出2月4日看到停更消息时，她立刻将《世界概况》从自己商务沟通课的学生参考资源列表中删除。
一位分析人士称，从根本上讲，由怀揣秘密议程、行事隐秘的政府机构编撰的《世界概况》，或许从一开始就从未做到无偏见。
“编撰者并非中立，也不能指望他们保持中立，”澳大利亚皇家墨尔本理工大学全球、城市与社会研究教授比诺伊·坎普马克说道。他在邮件中写道，为其停更感到悲伤是“错误的”。
他补充道，《世界概况》或许更适合作为历史文献保存。
根据存档版本，2月4日的最后一期内容已经过时：在伊朗条目下，该国政府首脑仍被列为最高领袖阿亚图拉·阿里·哈梅内伊。
哈梅内伊已于3月1日在美以联合空袭中身亡。世界再次发生了变化，而这一次，《世界概况》已经无法记录这一切了。
CIA World Factbook, trusted source of knowledge about nations, shuttered by Trump administration
April 6, 2026 5:57 AM EDT / AP
If you attended school any time after the Nixon administration, you likely beheld at some point the CIA World Factbook, a map and reference manual of Planet Earth and its inhabitants nearly everyone could agree on.
Maybe you read parts of it from a floppy disk or a CD-ROM for that social studies project due tomorrow. Or scanned its list of countries for Latvia, because that’s the country you’re representing next week in Model U.N. Even better, you wandered Earth in your imagination as you held the physical Factbook in your own hands, unfolding its maps and understanding, perhaps for the first time, that the thumbs-up gesture your friends flash each other is considered an obscene insult in parts of the Middle East, Europe and Argentina.
Who knew? The Factbook and its readers did, for more than six decades.
Its authors – some of the world’s best intelligence-gatherers, who contributed thousands of their own photos – kept the curated database updated and online for public use at no charge. The reasons stated were geopolitical and philosophical. But since we’re talking about facts, it also is true that the Factbook went public in 1975 with lofty statements of purpose at a time when Congress was revealing abuses by U.S. intelligence agencies, including the CIA.
“We share these facts with the people of all nations in the belief that knowledge of the truth underpins the functioning of free societies,” the CIA itself explained in its pages.
The spy agency isn’t sharing them anymore.
On Feb. 4, the Trump administration abruptly shuttered the widely accepted account of humanity and its flags, nations, customs, militaries and borders. The CIA framed the move as one of progress for an agency whose core mission has changed.
A great wave of grief rose from Factbook fans. Many said they mourned an America that valued knowledge for its own sake. Some saw darker forces at work under a president whose administration has pointed to – in times of war and peace – “alternative facts.”
“Stay curious,” the CIA advised in its “fond farewell” to the Factbook.
And, it might have added: Good luck figuring out what’s true from the wild and frequently inaccurate world of the internet and artificial intelligence.
Decades before Google became an everyday verb, there was the Factbook.
How the Factbook got its start
Its origin story is rooted in the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, a U.S. intelligence failure that inspired a more coordinated approach to gathering and organizing information on America’s enemies. The Joint Army Navy Intelligence Studies was born and was the country’s first interdepartmental basic intelligence program. But by 1946, national security experts agreed that “the conduct of peace involves all countries, all human activities – not just the enemy and his war production,” in the words of one, George S. Pettee.
The job of gathering basic intelligence on other countries was assigned to the newly minted CIA in 1947, according to the agency’s website.
The Cold War exposed the ongoing need for a one-stop source of basic intelligence – and an opportunity for what in 1971 became the unclassified Factbook. It was released to the public four years later.
In addition to becoming useful to students, it held geopolitical influence. The Factbook showed off American intelligence capabilities to the former Soviet Union and other enemies. Being included in it could confer legitimacy upon a nation or an opposition party. And it was ironic that an agency founded on the need to know and keep secrets was sharing so much data – called “basic intelligence” – with the public.
The Factbook also likely served as a boost to the CIA’s public image and put distance between it and other intelligence agencies tarnished by congressional investigations. In 1975, Sen. Frank Church, D-Idaho, convened a panel that held more than 100 public hearings, many televised, of the most significant oversight of intelligence agencies since World War II.
In 1976, the Church Committee reported widespread abuse by the CIA, IRS, the National Security Agency and FBI, including the revelation of the CIA’s “Family Jewels.” That was an internal account of illegal CIA activities, such as spying on American activists and an assassination plot against Cuba’s Fidel Castro.
Also in 1975, what would become the CIA World Factbook went public, ascending as a reliable research tool often recommended in class projects. There was never confirmation that the bad press inspired the wide release of the Factbook, but doing so around the same time fit the CIA’s need to rehab its brand.
In 1981, the CIA renamed the publication The World Factbook and in 1997, it leapt online. The CIA has described it as representing “a tremendous culmination of efforts from some of our country’s brightest analytic minds.”
Reactions across the globe
News of the Factbook’s end shocked more than just U.S. students and researchers. It was picked up by news outlets abroad. The story shot across social media, with Reddit users pointing each other to archived Factbooks and racing to set up and identify other sources of unbiased information that might suffice.
Isabel Altamirano, chemistry librarian assistant professor at Auburn University in Alabama, said the information is still out there but “it’ll be harder to find.” University libraries, for example, offer similar resources to students, who get access through their tuition.
“It was so easy, because it was all in one place,” she said in an interview, noting that on Feb. 4, when she saw the news, she rushed to delete the Factbook from a list of resources for her students in a business communications class.
Fundamentally, one analyst said, a Factbook assembled by a government agency with secret agendas and shadowy methods might never have been unbiased in the first place.
“The compilers aren’t, nor can they be expected to be, neutral,” said Binoy Kampmark, a professor of global, urban and social studies at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia. Mourning its loss, he wrote in an email, would be “misplaced.”
The Factbook, he added, might be better saved as a historical document.
Its last publication on Feb. 4 is already outdated, according to an archived version: Under Iran, the country’s head of government is still listed as Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Khamenei was reported killed March 1 in U.S. and Israeli strikes. And the world changed once again, this time without the Factbook to note it.
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