Key Learning Concept 1
• Define the key elements of strategic intelligence which consist of: Collection Techniques, Products, Covert Action, Counterintelligence, and Oversight and how all these elements work together.
Key Learning Concept 2
• Describe the function and flow of strategic intelligence information: who collects the Intelligence, how it is used, and who uses it in order to augment national security.
Why does this course's focus on Strategic Intelligence include the basic definitions provided in the Heidenrich article (which primarily deals with estimative (predictive analysis) to support strategy (at the national or military level), but then goes beyond to include strategic collections, strategic counterintelligence, strategic
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covert action, and Congressional oversight? Is the content in Heidenrich's writings too constrained? Why do we need to think about intelligence as it relates to the development of strategy as something more than just analysis? Or do we?" I believe this course moves beyond the original definition of Strategic Intelligence to show that the other aspects of intelligence gathering and whatnot are directly related to the definition. Because strategic intelligence deals with information used to form plans and strategies used by military leaders, the only difference in these terms is how the data was gathered. In her article Strategic Intelligence: What Is It and What Should We Do About It?, former National Counterintelligence Executive Michelle Van Cleave states that strategic counterintelligence uses both information gathered and activities conducted to counter foreign threats.
Without strategic intelligence, there would be no parties to give this information to, due to the main purpose of strategic intelligence, gathering data and intelligence to plan certain courses of action, whereas counterintelligence uses this information to block foreign hostile relations. As can be seen, Strategic Counterintelligence and Strategic Intelligence merge very well together, which is why it is easy to see the similarities between Strategic Intelligence and Strategic …show more content…
Counterintelligence. Regarding Covert Action, I believe that this can be connected to strategic intelligence the same way strategic counterintelligence can be, which is simply what you do with the information that you receive.
While Counterintelligence is used to thwart the efforts of enemy intelligence miners, covert action is used to find the weaknesses of an enemy party, and use them to your own advantage. For example, taking a hostile action against another country, but masking your identity, making it seem like the responsible party was someone else entirely. Without the efforts of strategic intelligence and counterintelligence, covert action missions would be sloppy. For example, if you attempted to make an enemy party believe that a country they are not at war with created a hostile action, they may be suspicious. However, if evidence implicating a country that is well-known to be at odds with the targeted nation, then suspicion is overridden. I believe counterintelligence in this case would be used to investigate the relation of other countries, determine their level of neutrality to each other, etc.
Congressional Oversight is also relatively easy to connect with Strategic Intelligence, due to what oversight actually is, which is the action of overseeing something. In this case, Congressional Oversight would oversee the methods of gathering the strategic intelligence, the quality of information that was mined, how it was mined, and
etc. Therefore, I believe the reason why we started with the basic definition of Strategic Intelligence and moved on to other terms was to show that, in the end, none of these things would be possible without the catalyst of Strategic Intelligence, without needing to touch on Tactical Intelligence (though Counterintelligence and Covert Action comes close, since it is helpful to anticipate what the enemy would do in retaliation and use strategic intelligence and information to plan accordingly). Without the offspring of Strategic Intelligence, the information would stagnate – there would be no parties who could use this information for whatever purposes. In regards to the second question, I do believe that Heidenrich’s writings are too constrained, but for good reason. He states in his article that many of our intelligence gatherers focus on the Tactical side of intelligence, preparing for what the enemy might do, always being on the defense without learning how to be on the offense, which is what Strategic Intelligence provides. Heidenrich writes that the declination of strategic intelligence has many bad effects when it comes to strengthening our country – the retardation of intelligence analysists, ill-serves the country’s national security officials, etc. He seems fearful that if we focus on tactical intelligence, then we will always be weaker than our adversary due to not knowing how to gather strategic – and preemptive – intelligence. I do not believe we need to look at Intelligence as something more than analysis, because of what analysis is, which is the investigation of how something works. I don’t see any differences from what Analysis is and what Intelligence is as it relates to Strategic Intelligence. The merge of Intelligence and Analysis created Intelligence Analysis, which is the examination of intelligence and formulating an idea of how to use it best or figuring what actions will need to be taken in the future. Analysis helps us to develop our strategies, since it gives us a broader idea of what steps will need to be taken.
The organization I have chosen for this essay is CSIS ( Canadian Security Intelligence Service ). CSIS closely resembles The Federal Bureau of Investigation ( FBI ) or British Security Intelligence Service. I have chosen this organization because I have great interest in becoming an employee of CSIS in the future. This essay will provide brief history of CSIS, the responsibilities of CSIS for Canada, and the application process for an entry – level position. These will be further discussed in greater detail as the essay goes on.
For the American intelligence community, George Washington is considered the father of intelligence. The introduction of the intelligence concept and its application in some missions during the early days of America helped America’s Founding Fathers to succeed against t...
As technology continues to advance at lightning speed, the world as we used to know it is beginning to disappear. Publically available data has replaced much of the espionage tactics that the CIA depended on after WWII and into the Cold War. Information that used to take years to obtain through covert missions is now readily available on social media, commercial databases, or through Signals intelligence (SIGINT). As the world becomes more technologically advanced and intelligence sources display new opportunities, the Intelligence Community (IC) has been there to exploit the data to gain the upper hand on the enemy, and support decision makers. Advancements in technology have made the IC what it is today, however, the path of learning the correct methods of exploitation is littered with abuses. In the 1950’s and 60’s, the CIA’s newest technology was a proposed mind control drug, and project MK-ULTRA was born. The Central intelligence Agency (CIA) performed rogue tests on an unknowing public without their knowledge and severely tainted the image of the agency. In 2013, the public found out about the National Security Agency’s (NSA) Top Secret PRISM program that obtained the phone and internet records of the public without their consent. These two programs were separated by decades, yet the similarities are undeniable. Both MK-ULTRA and PRISM resulted in intelligence oversight reforms aimed at managing these types of operations before they occur. While the government does not always have the ability to foresee how advancements in technology will affect the public, intelligence oversight mechanisms over the past 20 years provide the necessary safeguards that are needed to protect each American’s privacy, provide for th...
In this paper, I will do a case study on the Bay of Pigs and why the United States tried to conduct this attack. I will find out what intelligence led to this invasion attempt as well as what intelligence failures were made which resulted in the failure of the invasion. I will discuss what impact the Bay of Pigs had on the United States Intelligence community and what changes was made. I will end this paper with any findings I have concluded to if the failure has any affect on how the U.S. conducts intelligence in today’s world.
The DIA started in 1958. The organizational structure of the DoD and U.S. foreign intelligence came to a new shape with the establishment of DIA. It was Robert McNamara, then Secretary of Defense, who came up with the concept of DIA in 1961. DIA gathers human source intelligence, analyzes technical intelligence, distributes intelligence/reports to the intelligence agencies, provides advice and support to the Joint Chiefs of Staff with foreign military intelligence, and provides military intelligence to combatant commands as its operational functions. A DIA director is supposed to be a three-star military general and DIA is believed to have employed at least 7,500 staff worldwide today. The DIA is a defense intelligence agency that prevents strategic surprises and delivers a decision advantage to warfighters, defense planners, and to policymakers. This paper will try to evaluate DIA’s role in US national security in present condition of massive budget deficits and increased congressional oversight, plus the intelligence capabilities of the Regional Combatant Commanders and the individual services like CIA and NSA.
Intelligence operations consist of many actions and are performed by various intelligence organizations. Intelligence operations consist of planning, collection, analysis, espionage, exploitation, dissemination, evaluation, etc. Intelligence operations are performed by numerous organizations, such as the Department of Defense (DOD), Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA),...
If you had that one piece of the puzzle that would have prevented the bombings of the twin towers in New York and the Pentagon on September 11 2001 would you know it? If you saw someone do something weird or suspicious before the attack on September 11 2001, would you have called the police? If someone had walked into a United States Embassy in a foreign country and said that they know someone was going to use a plane to destroy New York in two days, could this have stopped the attack? Intelligence Analysis puts the raw sources of information together, make predictions based on the data, and finally publish the results.
United Sttes. Central Intelligence. Operations. By Richard Helms. United States Government. 14 Apr. 2013 .
I will be discussing the values strategic intelligence provides to national policy and decision makers and why it is necessary to cover all five components (SIGINT, HUMINT, IMINT, GEOINT, and OSINT) as an integrated study. I will be discussing each component individually and the positives and negatives of each. Then discussing why they all need to be looked at as one instead of individually.
Espionage involves the recruiting of agents in local and foreign nations. Agents are encourage to have the ability of possessing information, using audio surveillance as well as the use of modern photography, sensing and other techniques and technology to gather secret information. Surveillance with high technology equipment on the ground or from high-altitude planes and satellites has become an important espionage technique.
The Central Intelligence Agency’s main responsibility is stated in its Vision statement: “We will provide knowledge and take action to ensure the national security of the United States and the preservation of American life and ideals” (www.cia.gov). The CIA’s job is to provide pertinent, timely, and un-biased foreign intelligence. They also act as an unseen force by conducting undercover action as ordered by the President in order to preempt threats or achieve objectives of the United States. The CIA is the only intelligence organization that is not subject to cabinet prerogative, making it reliable in it is unbiased in its reports, because it has no political agenda. There are six main types of intelligence by which the CIA collects information. Human intelligence (HUMINT) is information gathered by field operatives through overt and covert techniques (www.cia.gov). Communications intelligence (COMINT) is acquired from intercepted foreign communications (www.cia.go...
Strategic Planning is looking at where you are now, knowing where you want to be in the future and planning the steps to get you there.
The best way to avoid being shot is to avoid getting into a gunfight in the first place, practice prevention in other words. It doesn't always work, of course, but you can avoid certain situations if you think about it first, and then apply some tactics. The same philosophy applies to Counter Intelligence. The best way to stay off someone's radar screen is to not give anyone a reason to look in the first place.
My strategy needs to be coherent by having an advanced plan in mind to achieve my objectives. My plan should be able to anticipate how my target will behave before I use deception to get my outcome. If I know how my target behaves, I need to find out and should be able to know how it will react to both a successful or unsuccessful deception. This is no small task because if the target is big, it will require a higher level of coordinated actions from different agencies and departments.
One finds both broad and narrow senses of the adjective strategic. Narrowly, term denotes operating directly against military or industrial. installations of an enemy during the conduct of war with the intent of destroying his military potential. Today, strategy is used more often. in its broader sense of purpose.