THE ROLE OF DISCOURSE IN INTELLIGENCE ANALYSIS Cover Image

Rolul discursului în analiza de informații
THE ROLE OF DISCOURSE IN INTELLIGENCE ANALYSIS

Author(s): Ruxandra BULUC
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences
Published by: Carol I National Defence University Publishing House
Keywords: critical discourse analysis; context; context models; ideology; culture; mindsets; cognitive closure; discourse failure

Summary/Abstract: Intelligence analysis, like any other field of human endeavour, relies on and is shaped by discourse. However, the extent to which discourse affects the process of intelligence analysis has seldom been tackled in research on this issue. The present article contends that critical discourse analysis would be a vital tool for intelligence analysis in two respects: firstly, in deciphering the cultural and ideological mechanisms at work in the discourses that analysts receive from the field, and, secondly, in the production of intelligence reports themselves. The article then focuses on the errors that might arise in the production of these reports and identifies two main categories to which they pertain: those related to the analysts’ cognitive limitations and those pertaining to the discursive level per se. The aim of the article is to identify the means by which critical discourse analysis could be used to alleviate the effects these errors may have on the intelligence analysis process and suggests several coping mechanisms and techniques for analysts in this field.

  • Issue Year: 53/2014
  • Issue No: 4
  • Page Range: 112-123
  • Page Count: 12
  • Language: Romanian
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