Today's intelligence analyst is a solitary hunter, quietly toiling away at their computers - searching through an ocean of data for those critical nuggets of information for insights that may allow him/her to see a larger picture that will impact national security. However, the world has radically changed with the global war on terrorism and the task is more difficult than ever. Threats have shifted from Nation States with a formal military to ill-defined, ad-hoc groups and individuals acting semi-autonomously. Today's threat environment means that the picture is subtle and fuzzy, and there is typically less time for recognizing significant information, exploring the implications of that information, making decisions and ultimately, recommending actions. These same uncertainties are compounded by the well-known human decision-making biases in understanding information, and the fact that the analyst population is rapidly becoming younger, and less experienced as senior analysts retire. There is also a lack of effective mechanisms and processes for sharing information across the intelligence community (IC) which significantly hinders the analytic process. This presents both a challenge and a critical opportunity to transform the analytic process.
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