Lack of American intelligence (4)
I believe the answer is:
nous
'intelligence' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'lack of american' is the wordplay.
'lack of' becomes 'no' (lack of money is no money).
'american' becomes 'us'.
'no'+'us'='NOUS'
(Other definitions for nous that I've seen before include "Gumption" , "Savvy" , "Common sense (sl.)" , "we recognised in Nancy" , "FT in Paris, say" .)