Intelligence

Intelligence refers to an awareness that leaders hope to have about the threats or opportunities that face their nation, either internally or from abroad. Armed with this information, they may make better decisions about how to protect and advance the national interest. An understanding of threats and opportunities can be reliably acquired only through the careful collection and study of information about domestic and foreign situations, such as plotting by internal subversives or the machinations of external terrorist factions and rival nations. This gathering of information, along with the interpretation of its meaning, lies at the heart of intelligence.

Stated more formally, intelligence is the knowledge and foreknowledge of dangers and opportunities—both domestic and foreign—as a prelude to decision and action by a nation's leaders. Strategic intelligence refers to the objective of achieving a global understanding of dangers and opportunities; tactical intelligence is concerned more with threats and opportunities on specific battlefields or theaters of war.

The academic study of intelligence has progressed by leaps and bounds in recent years. The most important developments in the field are efforts to move beyond spy memoirs and to apply rigorous research standards to the questions of how nations gather and analyze information on world affairs and engage in other intelligence activities. More and more studies are presenting empirical data, testable hypotheses, and theoretical frameworks. Scholars in the field have also been conducting in-depth interviews with practitioners and have benefitted from [Page 1211]the extensive number of intelligence documents that have been released in recent decades. In the United States, such documents include the Church Committee reports (1975–1976) as well as reports from government panels examining intelligence such as the Aspin-Brown Commission (1995–1996), the Kean Commission (2004), and the Silberman-Robb Commission (2005).

This entry considers the nature of intelligence, highlighting some key examples involving covert action and counterintelligence activities on the part of the United States. It then examines the results of intelligence activities and notes some distinctive features of intelligence in democratic regimes.