INFORMATION SOCIETY INFLUENCE ON THE NATURE AND CHARACTER OF INTELLIGENCE
INFORMATION SOCIETY INFLUENCE ON THE NATURE AND CHARACTER OF INTELLIGENCE

Author(s): Dan Pomîrleanu
Subject(s): Security and defense
Published by: Carol I National Defence University Publishing House
Keywords: information society; character of intelligence; intelligence cycle;
Summary/Abstract: The technical developments revealed in the last decades have changed the daily life of citizens and the economic activities. The technology changes affected, also, the intelligence targets and the methods of collection, processing and communication of material. The main focus of this paper is to show in what extent the so-called ‘information society’ represent a change to the nature or character of intelligence. Because the nature of intelligence has always been to support decision making, this remains unchanged in any technological development stage of the society. As a result, only the character of intelligence has faced changes generated by the technological advances. It is important to identify how the character of intelligence has been changed because this helps to identify new opportunities in improving the intelligence collection, analysis and timely delivery to the customers of the needed products. Beside this, it is possible to shape organizational structures to meet the new challenges. The analysis is based on the technological discoveries, their influences on the intelligence process as well as on the resulting implications. It is shown that all the intelligence cycle from data collection to distribution and feedback is affected by significant changes generated by the ‘information society’. Moreover, there are some more organizational implications and new threats that setup a new environment for the intelligence community. The analysis is presented according to the intelligence cycle, beginning with data collection, where OSINT and SIGINT encountered the most important changes. Then, the implications for intelligence analysis and distribution are emphasized. These are followed by the presentation of the changes on the intelligence organizations. Having this done, the implications of the changes in the intelligence character in terms of ethics are discussed. Finally, new threats are identified and the resulting battle space for the intelligence community is analysed.

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