Intelligence analysts and their customers should not treat intelligence products as truth or infallible pronouncements.
Intelligence Studies
Strategic Communication versus Public Diplomacy
The terms strategic communication and public diplomacy are widely used across the U.S. interagency, particularly within the Department of Defense, the Department of State, and the National Security Council.
Soviet Deception in the Cuban Missile Crisis
The Soviet operation ANADYR was a sophisticated, doctrine-driven, centralized, and tightly enforced denial and deception effort conducted simultaneously at the strategic, operational, and tactical levels.
Deception in WWI
One of the simplest yet most effective WWI deception examples described by Rankin (2009) is the British use of realistic camouflage disguised as natural terrain, most notably fake trees, to conceal artillery observation posts. Artist Solomon J.
The Cost of Cognitive Shortcuts
The core mental shortcuts that shape how people interpret risk, evidence, and causality are clearly visible in human behavior, especially in politics, intelligence analysis, media narratives, and public opinion.
Legal Frameworks and Oversight of U.S. Intelligence
From this week’s readings, it appears that while oversight mechanisms do exist in the United States, they are fragmented, insufficiently centralized, and not fully modernized to address the complexity of contemporary intelligence operations.
Collateral Damage and Targeting Civilians
Ethical and legal rules governing collateral damage and civilian casualties are meant to limit the harm war inflicts on noncombatants. As Cocking (2012) explains, one of the key moral distinctions in warfare is between intending harm and merely foreseeing it.
Enhanced Interrogations
This week’s debate confronts us with complex questions that resist simple yes-or-no answers.
Reassessing Just War in Contemporary Conflict
Kenneth Himes (2006) raises important theoretical questions about the continued relevance and moral adequacy of Just War doctrine.
Basis of Ethics and Intelligence
Given the history modern societies have lived through, including wars and constantly evolving threats, we are arguably past the point of needing to justify either the existence of intelligence or the need for ethics within it, although understanding the historical developments that brought us her