Analyzing Intelligence

The last dozen or more years are replete with significant successes and failures of intelligence analysis. These essays make a unique contribution to dissecting the factors behind both, as well as offering broader perspectives and insights on getting the analysis right, effectively serving decision makers, and preserving the integrity of the effort. The authors are superbly qualified and I believe their contributions to the craft of intelligence will be both useful and lasting. -- Robert M. Gates, former secretary of defense and former director of the CIA Analyzing Intelligence provides a superb and self-critical assessment of analyst roles in the collection, evaluation, and interpretation of information on the wide spectrum of issues germane to national security. All who work in and receive support from the intelligence community should read the outstanding essays in this collection. -- Mike McConnell, former director of national intelligence Roger George and James Bruce have produced, in this new edition of their classic volume, the best source for wisdom on modern intelligence analysis. With important contributions from superstars in the US profession, this new edition is a landmark signifying professionalization of the intelligence enterprise. It deserves a place on every serious student and practitioner's bookshelf. -- Jennifer Sims, senior fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, former deputy assistant secretary of state for intelligence coordination, and co-editor of Vaults, Mirrors, and Masks: Rediscovering US Counterintelligence Analyzing Intelligence is an impressively broad, deep, and comprehensive survey of the nature, problems, and coping techniques of the craft. The contributors combine professional experience and intellectual acuity in an ideal way for making sense of the psychological, political, and bureaucratic context of intelligence work. The book serves as a handbook for government analysts at all stages of their careers, and an eye-opening explanation of the process for outside observers. No other does so as thoroughly. -- Richard K. Betts, Arnold A. Saltzman Professor of War and Peace Studies, Department of Political Science, Columbia University, and author of Enemies of Intelligence: Knowledge and Power in American National Security An indispensable guide to one of the most critical issues affecting intelligence and policy-making in the twenty-first century, successfully combining the lessons to be drawn from both first-hand experience and academic research. -- Christopher Andrew, faculty of history, Corpus Christi College, University of Cambridge, and author of Defend the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5

Written for national security practitioners and for scholars and students studying the role of intelligence, its strengths and weaknesses, and its future directions, this book is suitable for anyone seeking an understanding of the role and performance of analysis in US intelligence.Analyzing Intelligence, now in a revised and extensively updated second edition, assesses the state of the profession of intelligence analysis from the practitioners point of view. The contributors-most of whom have held senior positions in the US intelligence community-review the evolution of the field, the rise of new challenges, pitfalls in analysis, and the lessons from new training and techniques designed to deal with 21st century national security problems. This second edition updates this indispensable book with new chapters that highlight advances in applying more analytic rigor to analysis, along with expertise-building, training, and professional development. New chapters by practitioners broaden the original volume's discussion of the analyst-policymaker relationship by addressing analytic support to the military customer as well as by demonstrating how structured analysis can benefit military commanders on the battlefield. Analyzing Intelligence is written for national security practitioners such as producers and users of intelligence, as well as for scholars and students seeking to understand the nature and role of intelligence analysis, its strengths and weaknesses, and steps that can improve it and lead it to a more recognizable profession. The most comprehensive and up-to-date volume on professional intelligence analysis as practiced in the US Government, Analyzing Intelligence is essential reading for practitioners and users of intelligence analysis, as well as for students and scholars in security studies and related fields.