Minor Assignment
• Analyse the elements of the ‘Intelligence Cycle’. What are its core strengths and weaknesses?
Before I begin to analyse the elements of the Intelligence Cycle, I must begin with the definition of ‘Intelligence’.
Throughout my research, it became apparent that the acceptance for an accurate definition of ‘Intelligence’ is still an issue to date. One reason could be because experts tend to view ‘intelligence’ through their own specialty, and would be fair to say that this could possibly be because officers within the intelligence community do not have strong bridges connecting them to each other or to policy makers, which would therefore enhance communication and sharing practices of raw findings and improve
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The phases of the intelligence process include identifying the requirement or direction, collecting information through its various disciplines, processing and exploitation, analysis and production, dissemination and feedback.
Throughout my findings more weaknesses and flaws of the intelligence cycle elements were much more apparent than strengths. In theory, the cycle indicates that the elements flow in a cyclical order, but this is indeed inaccurate, as the cycle does not always flow in one direction or in a cycle as it indicates it does. For example, it can move back and forth between collection and analysis before moving on for the processing and exploitation stage where the most resources and time is used. It is also possible that information collected could end up going back to the requirement stage for policy makers to present a new direction requirement and or more information.
The intelligence cycle is, nevertheless, of significant value to intelligence and learning about it in theory assists those entering the intelligence business, because it provides insight into the processes, as well as being able to recognise it’s weaknesses in order to focus on building on strengths for the future of effective and efficient intelligence.
The analysis is then given to consumers and policy makers, once it is checked by the analyst supervisor and peers. The analyst should also be ready to give a briefing on short notice. But both the analyst and the policy maker or consumer have to be aware of at all times, is that the intelligence field does not know everything. “On any given subject, the intelligence community faces what is in effect a field of rocks, and it lacks the resources to turn over every one to see what threats to national security may lurk underneath” (Pillar).
Carol S. Dweck uses intelligence as a form of measurement that measures how heavy of a workload someone can receive and understand, and how it can be expanded through effort. In an essay that was
IPL has little universal consensus of its definition. To fully and comprehensively define IPL there are some considerations to account for as well as an understanding of its history. The core component of IPL is ‘intelligence and Warner claims ‘intelligence’ definitions are deficient because they often do not consider the interchangeability of intelligence within the field, it is used because ‘intelligence’ not only covers what intelligence personnel do but also the product of their work. ‘Intelligence’ and
Information – business intelligence – is no longer the exclusive domain of IT or research departments. From marketing and finance to management and operations, intelligence is applied strategically throughout the enterprise. And professionals who know how to gather and leverage it are the ones who will lead organizations, control decisions, and be relied upon to steer their companies.
Thus, intelligence cycle process as an integral part of the Intelligence System has intrinsic weaknesses within the “process” itself due to the interplay of different pathologies within the system. It may emanate in every phase of the process from Planning and Direction, Collection, Processing, Analysis and Production, and Dissemination. Julian Richards in his book “The art and science of intelligence analysis” discussed the problems associated with intelligence cycle. The sources of failures in the intelligence arena: Cognitive and analytical processes undertaken by the analyst when they assess the material available to them, and the organisational structure and flow process of the intelligence machinery itself (Richards, 2010). In which
According to Robert Jervis, “Policymakers say they need and want good intelligence. They do need it, but often they do not like it, and are prone to believe that when intelligence is not out to get them, it is incompetent.” In order for intelligence to be
The new aged concept of intelligence-led policing seems to be the ultimate answer for advancing criminal activity leading the United States. Everything new though, comes with its fair share of disadvantages and challenges. Some of the disadvantages argued against using this predicative method of policing includes the argument of limited resources, political pressure, information management, data overload, data quality, and adaptation (Casady, 2011 p. 10). Reporting indicates that there is a growing public need for information. The increasing fragmentation of the community, fear and insecurity and the growth of the risk society have generated a massive requirement for increased security and knowledge contributing to political pressure, along
The United States (U.S) Intelligence community has come a long way since the revolutionary war. After winning independence from England, the U.S would not invest much into intelligence or foreign policy until the 20th century. Foreign policy was simply not a priority for our young nation, having an ocean on eastern and Western boarders of the country severely limited potential threats. President Franklin D. Roosevelt would be the first president since Washington to understand the importance of intelligence and lay the groundwork for what we now consider national intelligence. Unfortunately, it has taken two catastrophic failures in intelligence for the U.S to realize the need for good intelligence and take steps to improve itself. The
) The “Tradecraft Primer,” lays out three primary intelligence analysis techniques. They are, “[1] diagnostic techniques are primarily aimed at making analytic arguments, assumptions, or intelligence gaps more transparent; [2] contrarian techniques explicitly challenge current thinking; and [3] imaginative thinking techniques aim at developing new insights, different perspectives and/or develop alternative outcomes.”
Intelligence is a dependable instrument of its own to generate information that establishes the base of National Security in the United States. Intelligence has been used since the beginning of history to provide information on enemy threats and how to prevent a mass disasters. It has been used for wars, national security, military tactics, etc. Intelligence has been available since the revolutionary war and our first president George Washington and other leaders of the world have used intelligence to protect their countries. Intelligence is the dominant and the backbone of homeland Security and it is ceaseless learning about it. National Intelligence agents train tirelessly to fight and create
The United States Intelligence community draws on advanced technology and analytical techniques. An intelligence process that sets objectives, collects, analyzes, and report findings, with feedback loops integrated throughout. Explicitly, the intelligence community advantages technology and tradecraft within a proscribed process. However, estimation of threats and decision-making are outcomes of human thinking. Analysts and policymakers create mental models, or short cuts to manage complex, changing environments. In other words, to make sense of ambiguous or uncertain situations, humans form cognitive biases. Informed because of personal experience, education, and specifically applied to intelligence analysis, Davis
Intelligence analysis?is the process of taking known information about situations and bodies of strategic, operational, or tactical importance, characterizing the known, and, with appropriate statements of probability, the future actions in those situations and by those entities (Richards, 2010).?The descriptions are drawn from what may only be available in the form of deliberately deceptive information; the?analyst?must correlate the similarities among deceptions and extract a common truth. Although its practice is found in its purest form inside national?intelligence agencies, its methods are also applicable in fields such as business intelligence?or?competitive intelligence.
Discuss epistemology and its relevance to intelligence analysis. Select at least two principal “ways of knowing,” and describe their respective characteristics/attributes, strengths, weaknesses, and potential for improving the quality of intelligence analysis.
When a person utters the word “intelligence,” people tend to think of a genius like Albert Einstein developing some obscure equation that the great majority of the population will never understand. The problem with the definition of intelligence is that people relate intelligence to words like “genius” which require intelligence but do not have the same definition as intelligence. Often, people try to use related words to define intelligence, but these words are unable to define intelligence since many are only different levels of intelligence. While many definitions try to encompass the meaning of intelligence and various definitions describe a small part of intelligence, no definition completely explains intelligence, because
In most cases these INTs community compete among each other to provide needed intelligence information to policy makers to justify their budgetary allocations (Lowenthal, 2014). However, intelligence collection can be divided into five main categories referred to as “intelligence collection disciplines” or the “INTs”. These include Human Intelligence (HUMINT), Signals Intelligence