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PICT 8045 Challenges Experienced by Business Intelligence Officers Assessment Answer

PICT 8045: Intelligence Theory and Practice

Final Examination—S1 2020

SECTION I: Essays (100 points)

Please answer TWO of the following questions in essay form. In your essay you are expected to draw on relevant materials from the course readings, class discussions, and other class materials. Each essay is worth 50 points, so please budget your time accordingly. Be sure to answer all parts of the question.

1. During the semester, we have talked about the many issues intelligence analysts face and the many kinds of problems within the intelligence community more broadly (cultural, organizational, social, moral, etc.). In your view, what are the top three biggest challenges that intelligence officers face? Why? How can those problems be fixed—or can they be fixed at all? Has taking this class changed your perspective about the CIA and/or the intelligence community? If so, how, and if not, why not? (It’s okay if your perspective hasn’t changed, but give a reasoned discussion about why.) 

2. Given what you have learned this semester about intelligence work, what might winning the Global War on Terror look like? (I’m not expecting you to rewrite national security policy here; I’m more interested in how you apply the practical material we have read and talked about this semester to this abstract problem. There are no right or wrong answers here—only good and bad ones.)

3. What has been the most significant new learning for you this semester? I’m serious about this question: I want to know whether and how your thinking has changed over the last four months about any of the issues or perspectives we have discussed. Feel free to talk about just one thing, or about as many as four different things. Be sure to ground the bulk of your discussion in what we have read and talked about in class. You can also connect your discussion to the ways in which you now read about/discuss/think about current events in America and around the world. 

Answer

Intelligence Theory and Practice

Q1: Challenges experienced by Business Intelligence Officers 

Introduction 

The world one experiences today is completely different from what it was before. The intelligence issues were comparatively simple then and the amount of data to be analysed was comparatively less. The resources of the intelligence were sufficient for keeping a proper track of the adversary facilities. In the modern-day context, the intelligence officers have to deal with several threats across a wide range of challenges which often influences the security of the nation (Petersen & Tjalve, 2018).  While several intelligence acquiring components assist the efforts of the national security, the analytical workforce is often inundated by aspects of the harvest. There has been evidence of the proliferation of the new media and high technological devices, which did not find its existence in the previous years. In this context, the essay will be critically evaluating the 3 foremost challenges experiences by the intelligence officers and interpret whether the challenges experienced could be mitigated or not. The perspective of the learner regarding the intelligence community will also be discussed in the context of the topic.

Discussion 

While handling the myriad of the 21st-century challenges, it could be stated that intelligence serves as the crucial aspect of the procedure of decision making. Irrespective of the fact the assets of intelligence are utilised for tracking the cyber threats terror attacks and proliferation of nuclear activities, however, the challenges for the intelligence officers have increased at an alarming rate (Vogel & Tyler, 2019). The first major challenge experienced by the intelligence officers is shifting huge sets of data in the quest of determining the correct decision. This is because, the intelligence officer cannot focus only on the present information, however, they shall be keeping track of the previous data as well. In this context, it can be stated that the intelligence communities are making subsequent efforts to develop effective software and hardware for the faster accumulation of data, but the challenging will still be remaining. Technology keeps altering at the speed of the thought (Sillaber et al. 2019). In this context, it can be stated that since new technologies are developing at an alarming rate, the intelligence officers also need to adopt new tactics and techniques for adjusting their work. The types of intelligence have always taken active participation in looking at the open sources, however, in the modern-day context, sources of data such as new media and social media are considered imperative in analysing several events such as the Arab Spring and the recent crisis occurring within countries such as Egypt and Syria. Two angles can be considered in this perspective. Firstly, the intelligence has to deal with more information as social media and the internet has a wide array of information to handle. Similarly, tampering of information is another aspect that intelligence needs to be aware off, as all of the information available on the internet and social media are not authentic, thus suggesting despite providing remedies, the challenges are there to exist. 

The second most challenge experienced by the intelligence officers is that at the time of relaying the analysis, the decision-makers are often not aware of their limitations in the sphere of analysis (Heidenreich & Westbrooks, 2017). While handling a crisis, intelligence information is available in bits and pieces, thus all the information is not available to the intelligence officer. It is the responsibility of the analysts for filling the data which is missing depending on their perceptions. In this context, its cam is stated that the beliefs are often not supported by concrete information, it is usually dependent on assumptions or past experiences. In this context, one has to take the initiative of relaying the chain of commanding the gaps within the analysis. Since the filling of the missing information is dependent on assumptions, at times the assumptions might prove to be wrong as well, thus the overall operation of a case might go in the wrong direction. There has been a persisting challenge for the business intelligence officer which can be minimized by the application of artificial intelligence to some extent as it takes active participation in minimizing aspects of human error. However, this is not a permanent solution are certain loopholes in artificial intelligence as well which is the reason why human interactions are always required alongside the application of artificial intelligence.

The third most challenge experienced by the intelligence officers is that the working of the intelligence services within certain nations are often hampered nu the confidence related crisis within the efficiency and commitment towards the democratic oversight. The issues start escalating when the general public is not made knowledgeable about the activities carried out by the intelligence services and the precautions that need to be taken into consideration for controlling them (Bellaby, 2019). However, this issue can be mitigated by coordinating a sense of cooperation amongst the intelligence services, country coordination and another form of security sectors. The acceptability of the public shall be prioritised and particular emphasis shall be given on effective accumulation and utilisation of available data.

While reflecting my perspective about intelligence communities, it can be stated that my perspective has changed a bit. I believe that intelligence communities take active participation in supporting the enforcement of law and security of the homeland. However, protection of the homeland is proving to be a difficult task for the intelligence officers as the advancement of technology has benefitted the crime conductors of the society as well. While the intelligence communities have transformed and advanced from what it has been previously. In the 21st century, intelligence officers are indulged in multitask handling starting from the monitoring of the international military forces to protect against cyber threats and terrorist attacks, thus suggesting the role is more dynamic than the past.  

Conclusion 

While concluding, it can be stated that intelligence officers have to deal with multiple aspects of security measures. In this quest, they experience certain challenges, the first being dealing with the excess availability of information. While technological advancement has resolved the issue to some extent, however application social media and internet suggests that more emphasis needs to be given on information search. The second challenge is filling the missing information by the intelligence analyst, as sometimes it may go in wrong directions as it is mostly dependent on perceptions. Use of artificial intelligence can resolve the issue to some extent, however, the challenge cannot be eliminated. Public anonymity about intelligence activities is another challenge to consider which can be minimised through nation coordination with the intelligence communities.

Q2. Intelligence work and Global war on terror

Introduction

The understanding of the intelligence work from the semester had been very informative to determine its use and importance in fighting criminal activities such as terrorism. The intelligent system can be defined as the incorporation of human intelligence in two applications that are handled by machines for performing search optimisation. Terrorists have emerged to become more skilled at the manipulation of the use of the internet and other technologies to be able to enter highly classified buildings and wage terror attacks such as it happened on September 11 in America. In response, the future win over Global share would you require an equal amount of manipulation of internet use for building and intelligence system to make transformations in the needs of national security.

Discussion

The intelligence community and had been under severe scrutiny after September 11 attacks both internally and externally. Assessment of the breakdown of the intelligent system by Bryman (2017) has revealed the occurrence of such events to be more predictable then it had been resumed in reality. However, taking lessons from the failure of the intelligence community in the United States after the terror attacks of September 11, there has been a revolution indicated in the intelligence work for detecting and preventing future terrorist attacks and to prevent the materialization of threats on national security (Fisher, 2016). It has also been realised that there is a need for local and state intelligence to work in a combined manner for waging war against terrorism. There are still debate around if Global terrorism can be ended and the measures that would be most effective for winning the war against global terrorism.

With the evolution of Technology and its permeation in every aspect of life, the face of crime has assumed to be more sinister than before. The Global War against terrorism cannot be fought on the battlefield but by most strategic movements to analyse the moves of highly efficient terrorist groups. However, it must have also been countered by Pant and Lidarev (2018) that for countering terrorism intelligence work is important yet it would be required to be applied tactically. Winning the war on terrorism should look like the work of highly efficient intelligence work that is more tactful and strategic in form. Winn against terrorism would require more behavioural and psychological approach than just reliance on arms and ammunition. As noted by Eckenwiler & Hunt 2017), to be on the winning side it would be important for local and state governments to develop our integrated intelligence network to be able to monitor the movement of terrorist groups, their activities and predict their future actions. 

The law military enforcement objectives need to include the neutralization or destruction of the existing terrorists, their bases, weapons and network and for this purpose, a robust network of Intelligence importance cannot be denied. Intelligence work can be a crucial component for the world to be waged on global terrorism on a diplomatic front. It is said that it takes fire to fight the fire and the most successful terrorist organisations in the world have maintained their activities tactfully through maintaining highly organised intelligence operatives (Mullins, 2016). This has led to the supposition that to fight such tactful groups involved in spreading terrorism, there is a need for building a well-developed network of an intelligence operative. Furthermore, for making pre-emptive attacks by countries on terror groups in the future, the role of intelligence sharing cannot be denied.

The intelligent system would include the overall Information Network of local and state agencies and use of predictive analytics system for tracking the activities of the terrorists. Winning the war on terrorism would require to be identified from socio-economic dimensions. It would mean a well-developed social support with highly skilled intelligence operatives to be engaged in Counter Terrorism activities. The economic dimension needed for the success of Counter-Terrorism activities is increased funding for networking and the use of highly advanced technologies. NATO already has a Terrorism Intelligence Cell for coordination of the efforts to fight terrorism overseas. However, for fighting terrorism and to image victorious there would be a need for intelligence cell to operate at local and state levels and establishment of efficiency of joint Intelligence and surveillance system for collecting and sharing of information about terrorist activities. The future of the fight against terrorism and to end global terror the face of counterterrorism needs to be more strategic and tactful rather than just relying on military e operations for defence. The intelligence network needs to be reincarnated and there would be a need for technological support for the development of the intelligent system.

Conclusion

To conclude it can be stated that the present and the future war against terrorism would require a change in its form an approach. It is necessary for the local and state government to be more strategic and tactful in their approach to win the war against terror besides engaging in only military operations. Counter-Terrorism needs to be more strategic in approach in using technology to its benefits for fighting highly skilled and intelligent terrorists that are manipulating technology to create the horror of terror. Intelligence manoeuvre is the need of the hour to emerge victorious against the existing and future terror groups. The win against Global terror would look like the application of highly developed intelligence network strategically to study every move of any activity.

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