Understanding and Improving Intelligence Analysis: Learning from other Disciplines 12-13 July, 2012 London, England RAF

Club
The purpose of this conference is to engage in a cross-disciplinary discussion about the value of learning from other fields to improve both the understanding and the practice of intelligence analysis. It will also create the network and infrastructure for an international research collaboration for the study of intelligence analysis. Intelligence, like journalism, involves the acquisition, evaluation, and dissemination of information. In 1949, Sherman Kent, described as the father of US intelligence analysis, said: Intelligence organizations must also have many of the qualities of those of our greatest metropolitan newspapers. They watch, report, summarize, and analyze. They have their foreign correspondents and home staff. They have their responsibilities for completeness and accuracywith commensurately greater penalties for omission and error. . . They even have the problem of editorial control. Intelligence organizations (should) put more study upon newspaper organization and borrow those phases of it which they require. But the similarities between intelligence analysis and journalism are not unique. Professionals in other fieldsincluding medicine, the social and behavioural sciences, history and historiography, anthropology and other disciplines engaged in ethnographic research, econometric forecasting, and legal reasoningalso face many similar challenges to those that exist in intelligence analysis, including: Difficulties acquiring information from a wide variety of sources Vetting and evaluating the information that is acquired Deriving understanding and meaning from that information Impact of deadlines, editing, and other production processes on accuracy of analysis and assessment Problems in dissemination and distribution to consumers or customers Managing relationship between producer and consumer (role, responsibility, independence & objectivity) Developing professional infrastructure (recruit, select, train, & develop personnel; code of ethics) Overcoming impact of changing technology and alternative information distribution systems How do practitioners in various non-intelligence fields overcome these kinds of challenges? How are their challenges similar to or different from those that exist in the intelligence arena? What can be learned from the comparison? This event has been funded through a grant from the Brunel University Research and Innovation Fund. They are organized and hosted by Brunel Universitys Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies in collaboration with University of Mississippis Center for Intelligence and Security Studies. Conference Contact: Dr. Stephen Marrin Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies Department of Politics and History Brunel University Uxbridge (West London), England stephen.marrin@brunel.ac.uk or spm8p@yahoo.com Phone: +44 (0) 1895 267 864

Understanding and Improving Intelligence Analysis: Learning from other Disciplines 12-13 July, 2012 London, England RAF Club
Understanding and Improving Intelligence Analysis: Learning from other Disciplines Day 1: Thursday 12 July 8:00 Registration and Coffee 9:00 Welcome Part 1: Stephen Marrin (Brunel University): Learning from Other Disciplines, including Medicine and Journalism 9:30 Comparisons to Other Fields Part 1 Analysis as a Type of Information Processing

10:30 Break 11:00 Comparisons to Other Fields Part 2

Publishing Is Not Believing: Insights for Intelligence Analysis from Professional Magicians. 12:00 Lunch 1:30 Intelligence Analysis and Social Science (Coventry University): Bayesian analysis in intelligence and social sciences: a tool for all trades? Inquiry Under Uncertainty, or On Some Affinities Between Obtaining Intelligence and Intelligence Reasoning from Evidence 2:30 Break 3:00 Intelligence Analysis and History d the British Columbia Institute of Technology Crime and Intelligence Analysis Program) Seekers after Truth: Cross-Disciplinary Insights for the Intelligence Profession from the Biblical and Theological Studies Discipline anch, UK Ministry of Defence): The Unreliable Memoirs of an Applied Historian and Operational Analyst and 4:00 Break 4:15 Intelligence Analysis and Perception (Federal Executive Institute): Neuroscience in Intelligence Analysis: Understanding How the Brain Works and Its Impact on Analytic Decision Making Multi-Level Cognitive Biases in the Chain of Intelligence FlowFrom Source to Consumers the Science into the Art of Intelligence Analysis) 5:30 Day One Adjourns

Understanding and Improving Intelligence Analysis: Learning from other Disciplines 12-13 July, 2012 London, England RAF Club
Day 2: Friday 13 July 8:00 Registration and Coffee 9:00 Welcome Part 2 9:15 Evaluating Intelligence of Intelligence: Lessons from Inside and Outside the Intelligence Community 10:15 Evaluating Intelligence Stephen Marrin (Brunel University): Evaluating the Quality of Intelligence Analysis: By What (Mis) Measure? (McGill University): Measuring Intelligence Success: Conceptual and Methodological Challenges of Intelligence Measurement 10:45 Break 11:00 Intelligence Analysis and the Dismal Science ernment Statistics ligence Analysis and Economics 12:00 Lunch 1:30 Improving Communication Positioned FDNY Watchline at the Forefront of Fire Service Analytical Intelligence What Doesnt and How to Fix It litical Marketing Intelligence 2:30 Break 3:00Applying Knowledge from Other Fields to Increase Understanding Patterns of Civil Unrest: An Interdisciplinary Effort urrent Intelligence Reporting and the H5N1 Bird Flu Virus: Insights from the Field of Science and Technology Studies 4:00 Break 4:15 Practitioner views, summary, and next steps 5:30pm Conference Adjourns