Term Paper on "Foreign and Domestic Intelligence"

Term Paper 22 pages (6712 words) Sources: 1+

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Foreign and Domestic Intelligence

The intelligence system of the United States is the most capable one assembled in the history of man. This intelligence community (IC) has undergone reforms since 2005 after President Bush signed the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act. However, transformations of analytical initiatives have constantly reduced the barriers between individuals and organizations across the IC and have prioritized missions effectively. A window of opportunity was evident in the 1990s that reexamined the existing structures and processes of intelligence. Emphasis for the intelligence community included, downsizing, streamlining, and consolidating, which forced them to prioritize on resources scarce to the environment. Members of Congress, think-tank analysts, and executive branch senior officials are a community growing interest of the U.S. government organization on how to apply all national instruments of power, and thus calls for the reexamination of national security activities. After the World War II, frameworks were established to support the budget, decision-making process of the president, mission planning and execution, and strategy formulation procedures and organizations to-date. The designed framework intended to address a different strategic global context, the Soviet Union, with a bipolar world having a single peer state competing. This move was driven by an expansionist while the force of the military backed the ideology.

Operational experiences catalyzed include Operation Enduring Freedom, Hurricane Katrina responses, and Operation Iraqi Freedom are security challenges of the 21st century that showed the inadequacy of the system. These operations revealed the deep flaws of the U.S. government that affected deleteriously on mission success and reliability of having the U.S. As a partner. As a result, debates on 'national security reform' continue to gain momentum and the hearings by Congress aim to clarify the problems identified. Additionally, proposed solution risks and advantages are also considered in the development of legislation for a novel National Security Act that specifies executive branch changes in terms of organization, authorities, and resourcing.

The United States of America has been able to imprison many individuals who conspired with terrorists with the aim of causing war on American soils. Foreign nationals intend to use ethnicity as an avenue that creates tension among people and this approach is destructive and is unconstitutional of liberty. In addition, attention and resources were driven towards the political system yet this cost valuable workforce and direct harm the people of America. As a result, the state becomes insecure (Salinas, Samuel & White, 2012). Furthermore, the number of claims received by the U.S. On claims of abomination due to the passing of harmful Acts to the political arena is outstanding. Reforms are instituted in cases where the measures existing create more problems than resolve their issue. As a result, this has caused tremendous weakness to the national security of U.S. This has pushed them to invest resources in order to have the capability.

The purpose of this proposal is to be able to identify the differences between objectives (near and long-term). The distinction clarifies those objectives that need to be handled during the first term and those that can be prioritized for the second term. Secondly, foreign and domestic intelligence policies and operations are addressed separately. Consequently, recommendations are given on how all these can be changed in the existing laws and specifications will be made on those that can be accomplished with the directive of the President. Lastly, the new President is given the task of weighing what he needs to look for when it comes to appointing a DNI and FBI Director. Research conducted indicates that the U.S. IC face extensive and major challenges including the lack of confidence to carry out missions legally and competently.

The intelligence community aims at collecting, producing, and disseminating information of critical facts that include rogue terrorists and states, the unconventional proliferation of weapons, the disposition of military-forces who are potentially hostile. All these can be identified, monitored, and measured through the service of a dedicated intelligence system, which is an asset to the U.S. government. It is worth noting that the purpose of the intelligence community in the U.S. is to be able to enhance national security by supporting the operations of the military force and policymakers. Therefore, the intelligence community provides gleaned analysis from sources and packages them in a manner that is timely and useful. Often, policy failure is attributed to poor intelligence. The U.S. will need to continue devoting a significant amount of resources to achieve significant capability of reform processes. Leadership is an aspect that plays a crucial role in promoting a culture. Rewards are extended to excellence, development of talent is encouraged, value is accorded to quality, risk-taking is a legitimate encouragement, and respecting the law is an unquestionable fact. Differences in Objectives

An overhaul is warranted for the process of intelligence priorities and requirements. Therefore, it is the work of the DNI to communicate to the intelligence community the intelligence priorities through the National Intelligence Priorities Framework (NIPF) system. Collection and analysis requirements are heavily influenced by the need for policymakers to have an imperative that argues against the suggestions that further isolate agencies of collection or increase their autonomy. Moreover, some market constraint needs to be introduced since consumers receive their intelligence freely and the need arises to discover resources that support greater intelligence efforts.

For the intelligence community, prioritization is a must and their highest priorities of intelligence collection for the U.S. government and, analysis- for the near future. The priorities include the status of nuclear weapons and former Soviet Union materials; Iraq, Iran, and North Korea developments and the continental overseas and United States potential terrorism targets against the U.S. It also includes China's military and political developments and unconventional proliferation of weapons. The intelligence community should also consider undertaking covert action capability as the highest priorities since it is an important national security tool. This tool is capable of providing policymakers an alternative that is valuable and complements all other policies. This is inclusive of sanctions, diplomacy, and military interventions.

The nurturing of such clandestine capabilities makes the building of this capacity an espionage and covert action. Additionally, it requires time and resources to be able to ensure all capabilities are monitored. Nevertheless, the priorities of the intelligence community need to reflect on the opportunities and threats anticipated including the military, political, and economic constraints. Intelligence priorities reflect on both national interests and border policies, but need to be based on other priorities. From the above, it is evident that the near objectives look into aspects that reflect on the economic intelligence of the country.

The emphasis on the economic aspect is whether the priorities stipulated reflect on the competition aspect of winning contracts. This is used to defend and ensure that policymakers are alert on cases of bribery and unfair practices used against most American firms. These firms considered the use of counterintelligence, espionage efforts from foreign, and government firms that protected them appropriately. Near-term priorities are known to change at any moment and thus, need to be addressed in the first term since they can interfere with developments. This is evident in recent experiences that have shown unexpected developments (Greenberg & Haass, n.d).

Near objectives of the intelligence community also look into the need arising to insulate intelligence from political pressure in order to maintain strong and centralized capability. This move enables them not to leave bearing of intelligence on national concerns to the departments concerned with individual policymaking. Through competitive analysis, politicization is guarded against by looking into areas where being on the wrong has major challenges. The highest priorities and first term achievements by the President and Congress are those aspects that delve into issues affecting the smooth running of day-to-day activities of the country. They are done during the first term because they're urgent matters and alter the economic balance and power of leaders in position.

Instability in neighboring countries can also spill over to the United States and thus, the intelligence community categorizes them as the first and near objective. To some degree, the objectives affects the decision making process of some issues in the second term and hence, they first need to be solved in order to pave a way for the other problem to be addressed clearly. These priorities look into the impacts to the people of America. This means that they need be addressed to reduce the chances of tension among individuals, parties, and organizations in America. The big issue presenting itself is the fact that these priorities are related mostly to other countries, but in a way relate directly to the people of U.S..

The second category of intelligence priorities includes transnational terrorism; Russia's political developments and their relations with former Soviet republics; the stability of Mexicans; Egypt and Saudi Arabia's stability; relations between Indonesia and Pakistan; negotiation developments affecting the peace of the Middle East; and international criminal organization's activities. These are long-term objectives and are assigned by the President elect for the second term. Since they are matters that majorly concern… READ MORE

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