Verified Document

Intelligence Analyst Policy Maker Relations White Paper

Intelligence Analyst - Policy Maker Relations Policymakers & Analysts

To paraphrase Sherman Kent, the relationship between analysts and policymakers "does not fall naturally in place, but requires careful thought to set right and constant efforts to keep effective" (Strategic Intelligence for National World Policy, 1949, sited in Davis). It is the nature of that careful thought and constant effort that is the subject of this paper.

Policymakers and analysts agree that "the quality and policy utility of analysis" must improve if intelligence is to help policymakers do their jobs[footnoteRef:1]. The desired improvements are unlikely to happen unless analysts can simultaneously achieve two important objectives: protection of the professional tradecraft and closer connections with policy action[footnoteRef:2]. The disconnection between the charge of policymakers and the deliverables of analysts has been an enduring one, and since the 1990s, a number of tactics have been implemented to address this matter. For example, analysts have experienced rotational assignments that take them into policymaker units, they have been assigned as personal briefing officers, and they have served as liaison officers for executive branch departments....

Less formally, analysts have spent more time making connections with policymakers by sitting on interagency groups and by creating opportunities for conversations. Good as these changes are, they are insufficient for addressing the magnitude of need for intelligence by national security policymakers and action-takers, the competition between insight and information providers, and a broadened policy base following 9/11[footnoteRef:3]. Five primary recommendations have since been developed, implemented, or established as standards for the transactions between intelligence analysts and policymakers. These recommendations are as follows: (1) Realistically define the analyst's mission; (2) know well Washington policymaking; (3) trust tradecraft; (4) adopt DI's best practices for crisis management and oral delivery of analysis, and (5) balance estimative and action analysis[footnoteRef:4]. [1: Jack Davis. "Improving CIA Analytic Performance: Analysts and the Policymaking Process" (Sherman Kent Center for Intelligence Analysis, Occasional Papers: Volume 1, Number 2, n.d.),] [2: Ibid.] [3: Ibid.] [4: Ibid., p. 7.]
An analyst's mission requires truth telling, but when the truth consists of just so many pixels, it is important to emphasize…

Sources used in this document:
Bibliography

Jack Davis. "Improving CIA Analytic Performance: Analysts and the Policymaking Process" (Sherman Kent Center for Intelligence Analysis, Occasional Papers: Volume 1, Number 2, n.d.), 1. Available https://www.cia.gov/library/kent-center-occasional-papers/pdf/OPNo2.pdf

Jack Davis. "Tensions in Analyst-Policymaker Relations Opinions, Facts, and Evidence"

(Sherman Kent Center for Intelligence Analysis, Occasional Papers: Volume 2, Number 2, n.d.), Retrieved

Roger Z. George, Robert D. Kline. Intelligence and the National Security Strategist: Enduring Issues and Challenges. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield, 2005.
Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Analyst and Policymakers Relationship
Words: 1387 Length: 4 Document Type: Essay

Identify the analysts and the policymakers It is not possible for one individual to collate and possess all necessary information required to make good decisions regarding national security and foreign policy issues. Indeed, the higher up one goes up the hierarchy of policy making ladder, the more complicated it becomes. Therefore, senior policy officials rely on their juniors and others for information and proper processing of the same[footnoteRef:1]. In effect, in

Kim Jong Il: North Korea's
Words: 1736 Length: 5 Document Type: Book Review

Were it not for the rarity of books on this subject, it is unlikely it would have found a publisher. One can only wish that Breen had a more scrupulous use of words and analysis to make up for what he lacks in facts. His challenging thesis and advocacy of negotiation is thought-provoking, but more evidence and research is required to take it seriously from a policy maker's viewpoint. One

IRTPA and the 9-11 Commission Report
Words: 3410 Length: 11 Document Type: Term Paper

9/11 and the IRTPA Under the National Security Act of 1947, the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) was charged with the task of coordinating all national intelligence activities within the U.S. government. One major reason for this change was the failure of coordination and analysis across the intelligence agencies in predicting the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Indeed, so glaring were the failures to 'connect the dots' in determining the

Promising Phenomenon That Lends Itself
Words: 26560 Length: 96 Document Type: Dissertation

66). Furthermore, social software will only increase in importance in helping organizations maintain and manage their domains of knowledge and information. When networks are enabled and flourish, their value to all users and to the organization increases as well. That increase in value is typically nonlinear, where some additions yield more than proportionate values to the organization (McCluskey and Korobow, 2009). Some of the key characteristics of social software applications

Iran Contra Affair
Words: 8295 Length: 20 Document Type: Research Paper

Iran-Contra Affair Historical Background of the Iran-Contra Affair Events Surrounding the Decision. Nicaraguan context. In the 1970s, dissatisfaction with a manipulative and corrupt government was escalating. All socio-economic classes were impacted and by 1978 the situation deteriorated into a short-lived civil war. Through violent opposition, the Marxist Sandinista guerillas achieved power in 1979. By September of 1980, the Sandinistas had suspended elections and taken control of the media. Leftist rebels in El Salvador

Israel's Decision-Making Strategies
Words: 4127 Length: 10 Document Type: Research Paper

Decision Making Strategies Within any organization or process, there is the cognitive and purposeful role of decision making that is the result of taking in stimuli, choosing from alternatives, and making a final choice of an action, in action, or choice of action. This is true in the small business world, multinational corporations, individual life, and even with governments. It impacts Foreign Policy, trade, economics, and most certainly the idea of

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now