Intelligence Requirements for the 1980's: Clandestine Collection

Politics & Social Sciences

Politics & Government

National Strategy Information Center

This pioneering study by senior security specialists and practitioners from the region highlights the interdependence of democracies in the Americas, and particularly the need for regional cooperation of their intelligence and security services. No one country in the Hemisphere can collect the requisite information and make sense of and manage the security challenges of local and transnational hybrid armed groups criminals, gangs, traffickers, militias, terrorists, and authoritarian leaders and movements from both inside and outside this vast region. Hence, the need is for unprecedented regional understanding, skills, and collaboration.
But these specialists and practitioners also point to the need to establish criteria, set boundaries, and enhance professional education as key issues become the subject of intelligence. Priority issues discussed are: 
<ul>
<li>Popular disaffection with democratic governance 
</li>
<li>Authoritarian and opportunistic leaders and networks, and the disaffected 
</li>
<li>Armed groups in the region criminals, gangs, militias, and terrorists 
</li>
<li>Strengths and weaknesses of the police, public security and intelligence services 
</li>
<li>Post-Fidel Cuban struggles and spillover 
</li>
<li>Adversarial external actors in the region</li>
</ul>

Democratic Security for the Americas: Intelligence Requirements

Roy Godson

Jose Manuel Vergara

Conflict in the 21st Century differs markedly from the way the United States thought about and prepared for war and defense during most of the 20th Century. Armed Groups remain key actors, having strategic impact at the local, state, regional, and even global level. As these implications come into sharper focus, change is taking place in military doctrine and operations. To prepare tomorrow's warriors and their intelligence counterparts for these challenges, the professional military education program (PME) of the US Department of Defense also needs to adapt to the new strategic context. 
 To assist in the development of this education, in 2005 the National Strategy Information Center initiated a project to develop curricula about the armed group phenomenon, and to prepare PME faculty to teach the subject in the nation's professional military schools, colleges, and universities. NSIC has been at the forefront of innovating and institutionalizing education on major dimensions of security studies with military and civilian partners for more than 40 years. 
 The new curriculum was developed in consultation with the leadership of America's top military schools, and was refined at two week-long seminars for military and civilian faculty. While addressed initially to the professional military education community, this curriculum will find wide appeal in a variety of national security education forums, including programs in civilian schools in the US and elsewhere. 
 The authors, all experienced faculty, present the dimensions of the 21st century security environment, and describe the evolution of the curricula development. This groundbreaking syllabus on Armed Groups and Irregular Warfare is in five parts, each with defined learning objectives, substantive subject matter, and annotated references of the key literature. The 21st century global security environment and the key role of armed groups. Types of armed groups: insurgents, militias, terrorists, and organized crime. Profiling armed groups and movements: A new approach to the order of battle. Strategic, regional, and indirect threats from armed groups, and opportunities. Meeting the Challenge: the whole of government approach.

Armed Groups and Irregular Warfare: Adapting Professional Military Education

Richard Shultz

Querine Hanlon

More than half of the world's population lives in fragile and failing states. Hundreds of armed groups, political movements, and extremists are competing for control and influence of these territories and beyond, using irregular techniques. In this interconnected world, even micro groups are capable of causing macro damage. This current environment contrasts sharply with the kind of conflict and wars fought between states in the 20th century. Yet the U.S. national security system and those of most allies is still calibrated to clashes between major powers rather than the persistent conflicts that now dominate. The traditional U.S. security paradigm and much of the underlying U.S. strategy and operational capabilities needs to be adapted and reoriented. The National Strategy Information Center research team worked with creative senior practitioners from democracies around the world to lay out the essential intellectual and analytic foundation for this adaptation. They identified key 21st-century actors, their visions, strategic cultures, and the techniques they are using. The team also examined effective practices from US and foreign experiences.  In Adapting America's Security Paradigm and Security Agenda, they conclude that managing the complex dimensions of the 21st-century security environment goes beyond force levels and firepower. The U.S. needs capabilities that it does not now have or that can be adapted to match the new environment. They include intelligence, military, and civilian operators with special skill sets.  The adapted agenda focuses on: 1. Intelligence dominance based on acquiring and operating with local knowledge;  2. Security, Stability, and Rule/Culture of Law Teams trained to assist local leaders in fostering stability, development, and rule of law principles; 3. Military Units organized and trained to address the full spectrum of irregular challenges; 4. Strategic Communication, closely integrated with policy implementation; 5. Coalition Builders - skilled professionals forging cooperation among leaders in fragile states and to prevent and prevail in irregular conflicts. The volume also contains original contributions on specific capabilities from Gen. Sir Rupert Smith; Dr. Marin Strmecki; Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad; and Kevin McCarty.

Adapting America's Security Paradigm and Security Agenda

Richard H. Shultz

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