Marrin, Stephen.

‘The CIA's Kent School: A Step in the Right Direction' The

Intelligencer: Journal of U.S. Intelligence Studies. V. 11, No. 2. (Winter 2000): 55-
57.

The CIA's Kent School: A Step in the Right Direction (1)

The Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA's) May 2000 creation of the Sherman Kent
School for Intelligence Analysis was an important step towards more effective
centralization and dissemination of the Directorate of Intelligence's (DI's) analytical
expertise. However, as envisioned and currently constituted the Kent School is
insufficient to meet the DI's future requirements.

Changes in intelligence requirements and information technology will impact both the
substance and process of intelligence analysis, and the DI will need to adopt innovative
business practices in order to continue to provide the intelligence that our national
security decision makers require. While the Kent School provides training services sorely
needed by the DI, a university model for the school would provide the DI with the
capability to tailor future research and development to the DI's unique informational
requirements. In fact, a 'CIA University' might centralize knowledge of intelligence
practices to the degree that intelligence could become the formalized and accredited
profession that as of yet it is not.

Progress Made
In May 2000, the CIA inaugurated the Kent School as 'a key component of the DCI's
Strategic Direction initiative launched in 1998.' (2) The immediate reason for the creation
of the Kent School may have been concern over recent intelligence failures--such as the
failure to warn of India's 1998 nuclear tests--which led to a renewed emphasis on 'better
collection, technology and analysis.' (3) However, the idea for a school has been around
for some time. In a 1955 essay, Sherman Kent--a leader in developing the profession of
intelligence analysis--described his attempts to make a number of improvements to the
practice of intelligence. (4) These improvements included the establishment of a
classified 'journal … devoted to intelligence theory and doctrine' as well as 'an "Institute
for Advanced Study of Intelligence." ' The journal--Studies in Intelligence--has been
published regularly by CIA's Center for the Study of Intelligence since 1955. (5) And
now CIA has finally created Kent's intelligence institute in the form of the Kent School.

In remarks at the Kent School dedication in May 2000, the Director of Central
Intelligence George Tenet noted that the Kent School--headed by its Dean Frans
Bax-'will prepare generations of men and women for the…profession of intelligence
analysis in the 21st Century. Whether the students are new analysts, team leaders, or
issue managers, they will see and learn for themselves the best of what we as an Agency
have learned about the craft of analysis." (6)

The Kent School accomplishes this through a six-month long Career Analyst Program for
neophyte analysts still learning their craft. In addition, the school provides a leadership
program for new managers and a 'Center for Intelligence Analysis' where experienced

1
officers can document their analytical lessons learned and develop new analytical
approaches. (7)

Through these initiatives the Kent School fills a glaring inadequacy in the DI's
organizational structure. By almost any measure previous analytical training had been
insufficient, consisting of only two or four week sessions usually after a period of sink-
or-swim on-the-job training. (8) The increased structure and length of the Career Analyst
Program provides greater opportunity for individual growth in understanding of the
profession, and hopefully a greater self-conscious rigor in the use of analytical tools. In
addition, institutional knowledge that had previously been handed down through a verbal
'lore' but only minimally documented may now be captured instead of lost as has been the
case for much of the accumulated wisdom of generations of intelligence officers.

Farther to Go
Yet despite its substantial benefits, the Kent School is insufficient for the needs of the
future because it does not provide the home for expertise and innovation that future
institutional adaptations will require. Changes in the external information acquisition and
dissemination environment will force changes in the DI's business practices, but CIA is
inefficient in the implementation of reforms. Many of CIA's organizational reforms and
improvements result from task force recommendations or consultations with outside
experts. However, each time a change is made in structure or process, the wheel--
consisting of tying existing practices to theoretical constructs of function and purpose--is
re-created. Once the recommendations are made and the task force or consultancy
disbanded, the lessons learned regarding the conversion of theory to practice dissipate. As
a result, the field of intelligence management--as practiced by the CIA--has become for
the most part ahistorical with limited and non-cumulative knowledge of how its theory
should be put into practice.

It does not have to be that way. The Kent School could form the core of a center of
learning and innovation--a 'CIA University'--where knowledgeable insiders could
collaborate with insightful outsiders to develop both the theory and practice of
intelligence analysis tradecraft and teach it to interested practitioners. Synergies resulting
from the formal integration of analytical occupational standards; methodological training,
and alternative and innovative approaches to intelligence analysis would result in greater
conceptual variety, a pre-requisite for effective institutional change. The creation of the
equivalent of a graduate program would provide the appropriate environment and
resources for promising young intelligence officers to work with more experienced senior
intelligence officers on projects developing new intelligence products, processes, and
dissemination methods. From these projects could come the kernels of insight to foster
improvements in intelligence analysis. In addition, such a structure would provide
bureaucratic protection for the innovators and experimenters willing to use their insight
and a trial-and-error approach to test concepts while allowing for failure but pursuing
success.

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Down the Road
The establishment of the Kent School is a substantial step towards creating Kent's vision
of intelligence as a profession. As Donald Steury notes, Kent had a 'passionate interest in
the growth of intelligence analysis as a profession, and to its establishment as a scholarly
discipline with a well-ordered methodology.' (9) However, just as other professional
disciplines such as medicine and law developed through the accumulation of knowledge
in centers of learning, and dispensed this knowledge to newly chosen practitioners
through a formal program of education and accreditation, so might intelligence develop
its own core university structure, and thereby develop into a self-conscious and structured
discipline in its own right. The Kent School takes CIA further towards this goal. A 'CIA
University' with the Kent School at its center would go even farther towards providing
the DI--and senior national security policymakers--with the knowledge to build effective
business practices that will continue to provide future American policymakers with the
very best intelligence that the DI can offer.

Endnotes
1. Stephen Marrin (spm8p@virginia.edu), an AFIO member and former CIA analyst, is
currently a graduate student specializing in intelligence studies at the University of
Virginia. This article was developed--with some references excised, and others
expanded--from thoughts posted to an internal CIA computer discussion board in
December 1999. Frans Bax--the Dean of the Kent School--subsequently responded at
length to my note, and some of the initial suggestions have since been implemented.
Also, as required, it was submitted to the Agency for pre-publication review.
2. CIA Press Release; Tenet Dedicates New School for Intelligence Analysis. 4 May
2000:
http://www.odci.gov/cia/public_affairs/press_release/pr050400.html
3. Drogin, Bob. "School for New Brand of Spooks." LA Times, 21 July 2000, 1.
4. CIA Press Release; Tenet Dedicates New School for Intelligence Analysis. 4 May
2000: http://www.odci.gov/cia/public_affairs/press_release/pr050400.html
5. Kent, Sherman. 'Valediction' in Steury, Donald P. Sherman Kent and the Board of
National Estimates: Collected Essays, Center for the Study of Intelligence, Central
Intelligence Agency, Washington DC, 1994. 24-25.
6. Remarks of the Director of Central Intelligence George J. Tenet at the Dedication of
the Sherman Kent School, 4 May 2000;
http://www.odci.gov/cia/public_affairs/speeches/dci_speech_05052000.html
7. CIA Press Release; Tenet Dedicates New School for Intelligence Analysis. 4 May
2000:
http://www.odci.gov/cia/public_affairs/press_release/pr050400.html
8. Drogin, 1
9. Steury, Donald P. 'Introduction.' Sherman Kent and the Board of National Estimates:
Collected Essays Center for the Study of Intelligence, Central Intelligence Agency,
Washington DC, 1994. xiii.