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Review Analyzing Intelligence

The book is a collection of articles about intelligence analysis written by experts in the intelligence community. It aims to critique and improve US intelligence analysis processes and practices. While providing a good overview, the book lacks depth and solutions. The reviewer provides recommendations for additional literature to supplement the topics introduced in the book.

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AlejandroMartínez
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131 views3 pages

Review Analyzing Intelligence

The book is a collection of articles about intelligence analysis written by experts in the intelligence community. It aims to critique and improve US intelligence analysis processes and practices. While providing a good overview, the book lacks depth and solutions. The reviewer provides recommendations for additional literature to supplement the topics introduced in the book.

Uploaded by

AlejandroMartínez
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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BOOK REVIEW

Analyzing Intelligence: Origins, Obstacles, and


Innovations, edited by Roger Z. George and
James B. Bruce
WASHINGTON, DC: GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2008, 339 PAGES

Cecilia Anastos

Roger George, a career CIA intelligence analyst and adjunct profes-


sor at Georgetown University, and James Bruce, a retired career CIA
intelligence analyst, senior political scientist at RAND Corporation,
and adjunct professor at Georgetown University, assembled a collec-
tion of articles written by a number of renown personalities in the
intelligence community for the purpose of exposing and critiquing
the u.s. intelligence analysis process and practice.
In Analyzing Intelligence, the editors present the voices of
John Hedley, Richard Kerr, Rebecca Fisher, Rob Johnston, John
McLaughlin, James Steinberg, Gregory Treverton, Michael Bennett,
David Thomas, Jack Davis, John Gannon, Mark Lowenthal, Carmen
Medina, Richard Heuer Jr., Timothy Smith, and Bruce Berrowitz.
The editors felt that in 2007, and after fifty years since the
American scholar and pioneer intelligence analyst Sherman Kent
remarked on the lack of professional literature for the discipline of
intelligence analysis, the community still lacked scholarly writings
on intelligence analysis.
If intelligence analysis were defined strictly as a scientific disci-
pline, then I would agree that there is not one textbook that guides
the intelligence analyst through procedures from A to Z, in a sequen-
tial order, and without the possibility of deviation from this set of
instructions. However, this is not the case, because intelligence anal-
ysis is a combination of science and art. Indeed, the editors provide
a definition that asserts exactly that: intelligence is as much an art as
it is a science. According to George and Bruce, the complete analyst
"must be more than a well-educated individual who can write con-
cisely. The complete intelligence analyst must combine the skills of
historian, journalist, research methodologist, collection manager and
professional skeptic. That is, at a minimum, he or she must demon-

International Journal of Intelligence E.thics, Vol. 4. No. 1 I Spring/Summer 2013 47


48 CECELIA ANASTOS

strate a very unique skill set: ... imagination and scientific rigor to
generate as well as test hypothesis" (3).
A similar definition of the complete analyst was presented by
Lieutenant General Michael T. Flynn, Captain Matthew Pottinger,
and Paul Batchelor of their "Fixing Intel: A Blueprint for Making
Intelligence Relevant in Afghanistan." The authors state that "ana-
lysts must absorb infoqnation with the thoroughness of historians,
organize it with the skill of librarians, and disseminate it with the
zeal of journalists."1
While I believe that analysts can draw from a rich collection of
intelligence literature, they lack a single tome that compiles those
resources. Participating in intelligence forums, I often hear of good
recommendations for books of interest for intelligence analysts. I
would like to see a formal compilation of the literature geared for
the discipline of intelligence.
I find Analyzing Intelligence to be a book suitable for those out-
side the intelligence c~mmunity who want to know what intelligence
analysis is all about and for very junior analysts who would like to
have a superficial overview of some of the pitfalls common to the
intelligence community in the areas of the politicization of intel-
ligence, relationships between intelligence analysts, collectors and
policymakers, and epistemological issues. There is one exception:
chapter 15, "The New Analysis," written by Carmen Medina, is an
excellent wake-up call for the "old guard" of analysts who may be
resistant to abandoning the status quo and beginning a new path in
this era of data challenge and nonconventional actors.
For junior intelligence analysts, I would like to suggest that they
stop after chapter 1, "The Evolution of Intelligence Analysis," to
read the latest edition of The US Intelligence Community by Jef-
frey Richelson. He describes in detail the mission and vision of each
member of the intelligence community that will provide the junior
analyst with a better understanding of where some of the issues
brought by George and Bruce are most applicable.
I find the book to be weak due to its lack of depth, leaving the
reader with nothing new to ponder other than Medina's chapter.
Presenting a criticism and a collection of problems in the intel-
ligence community without providing a solution for each instance
is, in my opinion, of limited use. With that in mind, and the afore-
mentioned lack of a solid collection or anthology to guide intelli-
gence analysts in their selection of books, here is my suggestion to
Book Review 49

supplement the individual chapters whose themes are introduced in


Analyzing Intelligence.
For Part One: "The Analytic Tradition," readers will really profit
from reading "A Century of Spies" by Jeffrey Richelson and "Legacy
of Ashes: The History of the CIA" by Tim Weiner. Part Two: "The
Policy-Analyst Relationship" begs for reading "Essence of Decision:
Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis" by Philip Zelikow and Graham
Allison and "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy" by John J.
Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt. Part Three: "Enduring Chal-
lenges" and Part Six: "New Frontier Analysis" can be enhanced by
reading "Structured Analytic Techniques for Intelligence Analysis"
by Richards J. Heuer Jr. and Randolph H. Pherson; "Thinking in
Time" by Richard E. Neustadt and Ernest R. May; and "Intelligence
Analysis: How to Think in Complex Environments" by Wayne Mi-
chael Hall and Gary Citrenbaum.
George and Bruce conclude with a piece about "The Age of Analy-
sis" and wonder whether intelligence analysis will become a profes-
sion in its own right. From the moment that academia began offering
master's degrees in Intelligence Analysis and Strategic Intelligence,
the discipline, in my opinion, has been professionalized. Now, it is a
matter of finding the right mix of instructional materials, standards
of practice, and internships to support the development of the best
professionals in this field.

Note
1. Major General Michal T. Flynn, Captain Matt Pottinger, and Paul D.
Batchelor, "Fixing Intel: A Blueprint for Making Intelligence Relevant in
Afghanistan," Center for a New American Security, January 4, 2010, http://
www.cnas.orglfiles/documents/publica tions/AfghanInteLFlynn.J an20 1 0_
codeS07_voices.pdf.

Cecilia Anastos holds an MA in Strategic Intelligence with Specialization


in Middle East Issues. She is a consultant Senior Intel Analyst-OSINT and
Cybercrime Specialist, and the founder of Meta-Intelligence.com. Fluent in five
languages, she is an avid reader and a source of knowledge in contemporary is-
sues, foreign policy, and international affairs.

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