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Pearl Harbor Case Study Summary

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There many steps that could have been taken to reduce the Japanese effectiveness in carrying out the attack on Pearl Harbor, but a good first that should have been taken by intelligence practitioners and policymakers during this period was to think critically. There are various methods to apply critical thinking but this case study will only explore a few. First, we will discuss the use of the analytical method, Joint Intelligence Preparation of the Operational Environment (JIPOE). The next analytic research technique explored will be the use of Analysis of Competing Hypotheses (ACH). Then the case study will wrap up thinking critically by discussing the affects of mirror imaging in the Pearl Harbor scenario. As mentioned there are various methods that could have been used but the best method would have been the use of JIPOE. JIPOE is broken down into a four step process: define the operational environment, describe the impact of the operational environment, evaluate the adversary, and determine adversary courses of actions (COAs). Assuming the U.S. was using JIPOE the first two steps would not have helped very much because the focus would have been on Japan as the operational environment. However, the third step in JIPOE process is intended to find out everything there is to know about the enemy. For instance, …show more content…

Open source intelligence (OSINT) is an intelligence discipline that was not formally recognized during that period of history but would have been extremely helpful. Electronic intelligence (ELINT) could have also been used to provide indications and warning (I &W) of a forthcoming attack. Finally, imagery intelligence (IMINT) would have tipped the scale in the U.S. favor while the Japanese were in transit to Pearl

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