America pursuing negative intelligence (4)
I believe the answer is:
nous
'intelligence' is the definition.
(I've seen this in other clues)
'america pursuing negative' is the wordplay.
'america' becomes 'us' (United States).
'pursuing' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'negative' becomes 'no' (no is a kind of negative).
'us' after 'no' is 'NOUS'.
(Other definitions for nous that I've seen before include "Native wit" , "Common sense: mind or reason" , "Abroad we" , "We, in France, have common sense" , "How the French describe their own" .)