Intelligence network issues identified by Dr Mark Lowenthal

Homeland Security

The first problem identified by Dr. Lowenthal in his YouTube interview is that traditionally the U.S. has conducted domestic intelligence and foreign intelligence, but it wasn't until the September 11th, 2001 attacks that the U.S. became increasingly concerned with Homeland Security. Since this is a rather new development, the definition and scope of Homeland Security is still being worked out. Currently there are many different ideas about what constitutes Homeland Security and what should be included in its objectives.

Integration is another challenge for Homeland Security. This described as fixing the airplane while it is flying. That is, Homeland Security has to design processes and procedures on the fly to ensure that the country is safe. They must adapt to changing threats all the while trying to build an infrastructure on the state and local levels. Many areas face significantly different types of threats. Some regions might fear agricultural terrorism such as the mid-west, while others might focus more urban terrorism. This makes standardization of procedures and processes challenging. There is no one-fit model that can capture the range of different situations that can transpire. Therefore, national intelligence will need to be inherently flexible in their design to adapt to a variety of threats.

The speaker describes through a metaphor about a mosaic that is constantly shifting. The artist gets a new batch of imperfect glass to piece together to try to make a picture of something. The mosaic keeps changing and this represents the can of threats that intelligence has to deal with. Different pieces of the puzzle do not necessarily come in order or make sense at first. However, the artist can make use of the entire different piece to put together a coherent picture of something.

Another challenge that is outlined is the security clearances that are limited to certain levels. What happens is that a local leader might have information that they are not allowed to transfer down on the local level. This can make it difficult for local representatives to perform certain tasks. On one hand, the local level only needs key intelligence and does not need information about sources or other irrelevant information that may not be directly related to their job functions. However, without access to the background, local representatives might have difficulties putting different threats in context of their relevance. Therefore the balancing point may be difficult to achieve in regard to the spread of intelligence.