Term Paper on "Intelligence Policy"

Term Paper 10 pages (3186 words) Sources: 9

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Intelligence Policy

Political factors that shape contemporary debates over intelligence policy, effectiveness, and accountability

Achieving a successful policy in a country is not an easy task. In the United States, there are many political challenges facing the intelligence community. They include the public lacking confidence in the ability of agency performing its tasks competently and legally to the satisfaction (Tocqueville, Mansfield, & Winthrop, 2002). From this perception, the intelligence policy reforms to be implemented are left out as a responsibility of the intelligence community alone. Agents from the Congress and the executive branch will also have an opportunity to address these issues. However, the intelligence community has been enacting some changes to adapt to the demands arising from the effects of the Cold War. For a long time, they appear to be giving useful and reliable information to customers. Additional reforms must be instituted in a case where the existing measures create more problems than it resolves and in course cause a weakness in the United States national security (Halchin & Kaisser, 2010).

The necessity of the U.S. government to enhance its intelligence capability remains fundamental. The end of the Cold War was not expected to bring in peace and security. Even the necessity of intelligence is not altered by the origin of free information. The main purpose of the intelligence community in the U.S. is to improve the national security by supporting the operations of the military and informing policy makers. In the end, the intelligence community plays a key role of providing an analysis of information gathered from all origins. In addition, it ensures the information is packaged in a timely manner. It is only the intelligence community eligible to deliver this significant integrative task (Zegart, 2011) and (Yoshihara & Holmes, 2012).

The United States intelligence is not likely to experience an enormous budget division based on peace. The possibilities of redundancies exist between and within the agencies thus raising inefficiencies. Eventually, they result in over-tasking and committing less force to the Soviet Union and systems of Eastern Europe because the collection becomes too expensive. In addition, the necessity to gather and evaluate information is increasingly gaining momentum. Accurate intelligence improves the efficiency of military and diplomatic operations. A good intelligence is not a pathway to good policy: poor quality of intelligence contributes to the failure of policy. The United States must continue investing significant resources if they need to have an important capability (Reed & Dumper, 2012).

Lastly, studies have repeatedly cited that poor leadership cannot be accounted for by either regulation or redesign. The responsibility goes to the future senior officials who take office in the intelligence community. Their role is to develop management skills and cultivate a culture where excellent individuals are rewarded. They also develop talents, value quality; encourage legitimate risk-taking whilst observing the rule of law. The ones who are trusted with this responsibility are obliged to reinforce such an environment. The endorsement of this Task Force is classified into three branches: suggestions reorganizing the internal environment, steps of relationship building or rebuilding with significant external constituencies and measures of enhancing the intelligence product (Reed & Dumper, 2012).

The Need for Intelligence

Even after the end of the Cold War and the availability of surplus information being commercialized, the need for the United States government to encourage in-house intelligence apparatus trusted with dissemination, production, and collection remains great. Whichever the significant personality of the reigning phase of global relations turns out to be, it will lead to an era of international security and peace. In the past few years, classic aggression has occurred on a large scale and numerous occasions of violence because of states and empires breakdown. In case the military are to deal with such challenges, intelligence will be a key necessity. This will be very crucial in assisting government officials fashioning and enacting non-military-based policies that influence the national security (Yoshihara & Holmes, 2012).

However, the necessity of intelligence has not been eliminated with the origin of information. With such persistence, the need of intelligence is not something to be treated as a surprise. The development of a modern development capability of the United States predated the Cold War. The desire to avoid another Pearl Harbor more than anything acted as the cause of development of intelligence apparatus in the year 1947. The need to curb surprise from harsh nations or groups is still very common; in fact, the Cold War regime is part of the threats the United States safety guarantees to occur more in type and number, if less balanced (Tocqueville Mansfield & Winthrop, 2002).

Additionally, the intelligence utility assessment and collection surpasses the rising necessity of learning about secrets. This includes the significance of resolving mysteries, for trends and events analysis. In fact, intelligence may gain major use in increasing the understanding of policymaker instead of trying to predict the individual events. The caliber of analysts availing themselves as part of the intelligence community is a significant resource for the makers of policy trying to put up with enormous information. By design and default, the intelligence community is a locus in the government of the United States increasingly in which all types of information is combined and connected to the policy. This task had to be resolved in cases where the intelligence community could not perform it (United States, 2010).

The government of the United States enjoys a unique position of power and because of this reason, it had a great potential in influencing the Cold War. Intelligence involves more than just knowing, however a significant tool in this case is sharing. Intelligence is a tool that helps UN agencies, International Atomic Agency, alliances, and friendly governments in dealing with popular challenges. Many multilateral efforts will only be successful if the United States has the means and is willing to share. Intelligence may be a significant tool only when adequate safeguards are developed into the relationships of protecting the categorized information during the process of acquisition. An unlikely intelligence reality of a large budget divided on peace considers all considerations. Because of the unique nature if the intelligence community, the U.S. government has the potential to asses and monitor developments from the previous Eastern Europe and Soviet Union. This helps in reducing redundancies while increasing efficiencies. In addition, the necessity to gather and evaluate information is increasingly gaining momentum. This is because accurate intelligence improves the efficiency of military and diplomatic operations (United States, 2010).

Improving Intelligence Analysis

The issue of improving analysis done by the intelligence community is closely linked to how intelligence requirements are set. All policymakers (former and current) are very significant in information analysis because they receive and supply information to various customers. The best mode of ensuring analysis are of high quality is enacting analysts who are highly qualified in the process (Tocqueville, Mansfield & Winthrop, 2002). This assists to have a thought on the challenge as enhancing both the flow and stock of personnel. Some specific stock requires being motivated to expertise in a geographical phenomenon or function and gain rewards of excellence. Not all individual would have the desire to pursue a career in intelligence management. The purpose of this is not to diminish the value of skills management. On the contrary, the CIA needs to focus more resources on formal management and training leadership to become competent as a requirement to promote those eyeing senior levels (Tocqueville, Mansfield, & Winthrop, 2002). Better analysis depends on reduced biases in the intelligence community. A greater stream of talented individuals into the agency from business and academia is important. Provision should be in surplus and ought to be designed for mid-career and lateral entry (Salinas, Samuel & White, 2012).

However, it is not enough for the government to direct efforts in improving the quality of analysts. It is the responsibility of the government to enact measures to change the relationship between consumers and producers of intelligence. It is mandatory for intelligence professionals to acknowledge the demands of policy makers. Vice versa, policy makers must understand the needs of intelligence professionals. This can be achieved through inducing regular programs of career intelligence rotation of all intelligence officers into the departments that specialize in policymaking (Tocqueville, Mansfield, & Winthrop, 2002).

These departments include the treasury, defense, and state. Another option would be to giving temporary assignments to officials of the congress. Professional job rotation programs would be appropriate for the promotion of senior officers. This logical context claims that if careerists are assigned in the policy-making frameworks in terms of regular checks in the intelligence community. However, politicization of the intelligence units has significant dangers. Experts have warned that the intelligence community is likely to manipulate judgment or information for the purpose of pleasing favorable political entities and authorities. In addition, if intelligence analysts were involved in the policy-making realms, it would be impossible to eliminate this danger. Therefore, it is necessary to induce changes by developing appropriate safeguards and permit policymaking consumers and… READ MORE

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