Strategic Report Writing

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Why Strategic Intelligence Is Important In Intelligence Training Programs

Introduction

Given the current global threat environment, an increasing number of organizations are augmenting or creating new intelligence training programs. These programs are designed to train future leaders in law enforcement, intelligence and counterterrorism, military, and even in the corporate world in the art and science behind effective intelligence gathering and analysis. To be most effective however, these programs must include a focus in strategic intelligence in order to teach individuals to have the foresight to prevent terrorist attacks and forestall threats in the future. This essay provides an overview of intelligence training programs and the importance of incorporating strategic intelligence into these programs to train future leaders in the field of strategic security.

Strategic Intelligence

The term "strategic intelligence" is used loosely across government and academic circles. Common consensus suggests that U.S. military officials and the U.S. government define strategic intelligence as the intelligence required to create a grand or "national" strategy that informs the formation of government policy and military plans and operations at both national and theater levels. This suggests that strategic intelligence is not the underlying details behind a plan itself, but rather, the logic behind the plan which is thus dependent upon insight and analysis of experts in a number of fields. Strategic intelligence includes a large number of activities including intelligence collection, analysis, and even counterintelligence.

While strategic intelligence is vital for global security, many programs focus on tactical intelligence, which is important when linked to an overarching national strategy. Strategic security requires input from experts in a number of critical areas including economic analysts, government analysts, foreign leader profilers, research on non-state actors and groups, as well as area experts, among other disciplines. Intelligence analysts in these specific areas spend much of their career focused on one of these areas in order to support the greater strategic need of the government.

Importance of teaching strategic intelligence in intelligence training programs

Intelligence training programs typically provide an historical, legal, ethical, and conceptual overview of intelligence gathering and intelligence analysis. Individuals are trained in understanding the intelligence cycle, from the planning to the execution and analysis stage. Students of intelligence training programs are taught the skills necessary to perform intelligence gathering as well as the presentation, writing, and other analytical skills necessary to analyze and present intelligence. Classes can include instruction on the core competencies of intelligence analysis, how to develop intelligence plans, report writing, and more technical courses on Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and geographic profiling.

There are a number of different types of intelligence training programs available to government employees and to the military. The Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) offers an intelligence analyst training program for organizations with which it partners. The program is available for state and local law enforcement officials as well as federal employees and military. The FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia now houses a Center for Intelligence Training, through which intelligence and other related analysts develop skills. The Directorate of Intelligence within the Central Intelligence Agency also provides a number of intelligence training programs both internally and through partner institutions. Finally, private and public universities, both online and traditional, have created intelligence training programs in the past decade which prepare students to enter into the field of strategic security.

For these programs to be successful at training future leaders in the intelligence field, they need to include a focus on strategic intelligence. Advanced analysts must be skilled at taking the detailed intelligence they have uncovered and processing it in a way to create strategic reports to inform policy makers. These analysts must have sharp analytical skills in order to synthesize a strategic overview of these detailed intelligence reports so as to provide meaningful and useful analysis to policy-makers. An emphasis in strategic intelligence, forcing analysts to develop an understanding of the long-term view of a particular security situation is therefore a key component of any modern day intelligence training program.

About the Author

Dan Sommer works for Henley-Putnam University, a leading educational institution in the field of Strategic Security. For more info on Henley-Putnam University,
strategic intelligence
,
intelligence training programs
, call 888-852-8746 or visit us online at http://www.Henley-Putnam.edu

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strategic report writing
strategic report writing
strategic report writing