Recommendation to a Student
Interested in a Career in Intelligence
Since publishing my book on intelligence and counterintelligence, many British,
American and Canadian students have been asking questions similar to Linda's (see below).
In order to assist them, I am posting the reply.
Alain Paul Martin
Author of Harnessing the Power of Intelligence, Counterintelligence & Surprise Events
Dear Mr. Martin,
Being a history student and having touched briefly on the use of intelligence
in the Cold War, the recent coverage in the news about the value and interpretation
of intelligence found in Iraq has been so interesting and I hanker after a good book
to read about this specifically. But one at a time!
I know you write on areas that stretch far wider than just business intelligence
specifically however if you do have a few minutes I wonder if you might
be so kind as to write what sort of work experience one would be expected
to have to enter this field and how I might go about gaining this.
Thank you
Linda
Hello Linda:
Thank you for your note.
Intelligence is useful for endless goals. It is information collected,
analyzed, and processed for policy makers, law enforcement, health, defense,
or business decisions (competitive intelligence).
With respect to your career aspirations, you are already on the right track
by choosing history in your undergraduate program. Graduate studies offer a
variety of options. Your vested interests and abilities, at graduation time,
will be among the critical success factors. You can assess your interests
and goals by learning more about intelligence
and its professions, the sooner the better.
Intelligence is a risk-mined field where,
sadly, Caveat Emptor (let the Consumer Beware) is as required as in buying
a second-hand car! That is why, more than anything else, the ability to
validate data and claims, regardless
of their sources, including the so-called authoritative sources, is perhaps
the best asset of anyone working in the profession. To give an idea, please
take a look at the article
titled Russian Sigint in which Dave
Emery systematically diagnoses published content in The New American web page.
In government and the military, there are several tracks ranging from the
age-old human intelligence (HUMINT) to signal intelligence (SIGINT) dealing
with the encryption and decoding of digital messages, Measurement and Signature
Intelligence (MASINT) and Communications Intelligence (COMINT). Within each
track, you can work upstream (data collection) or downstream (analysis,
interpretation, risk assessment and mitigation). As an example, languages
are important in HUMINT especially upstream. History, political science,
social psychology and fuzzy-set mathematics are critical downstream.
Languages, cryptology, IT and local telecom
infrastructure are also
important in SIGINT. No one can possess all these skills. That is why, analysts work in
teams with complementary competencies and field experience. The U.S. Air War
College portal titled
Gateway to Intelligence is an excellent reference for anyone interested
to learn about intelligence.
In the business world, competitive intelligence is gradually becoming
a science with its own professional societies.
The Society for Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP)
is a leading force. A practical book on the topic is Strategic and
Competitive Analysis: Methods and Techniques for Analyzing Business
Competition by Craig S. Fleisher and Babette Bensoussan.
For more information, visit www.executive.org/news
and www.executive.org/bibliography.
Regards,
Alain Paul Martin
Author of
Harnessing the Power of Intelligence, Counterintelligence & Surprise Events
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