THE ROLE OF THE DIGITAL ENVIRONMENT IN INTELLIGENCE ANALYSIS
THE ROLE OF THE DIGITAL ENVIRONMENT IN INTELLIGENCE ANALYSIS

Summary/Abstract: The digital environment can aid intelligence analysts in several ways. Firstly, it is a source of information. Data and evidence can be obtained from various online sources and they can provide an insight not only into the possible actions the foreign actors may undertake but also into their motivations, their ways of reasoning, their world views. From this perspective, the digital environment can help enhance the analysts' awareness of the cultural components of mindsets, can aid them in developing a clear understanding of various ideologies by providing first hand (albeit indirect) insight into the way a foreign culture manifests itself, into its values, beliefs, assumptions, reasoning mechanisms and rationales. Secondly, computers can process the vast amount of information that is nowadays available to analysts, by organizing it according to topics, to threads of discussion. By constructing matrixes for the issues at hand, computer-assisted analysis facilitates a clearer picture of the event, highlights the points where a hypothesis may need further refinement and brings to light new connections that would have remained absconded if the information had not been organized thus. Thirdly, collaboration via a network can help analysts keep in contact with one another, it creates a virtual community in which analysts can pool not only the available information but also share resources, ideas, knowledge and expertise. The present article will look in turn at the ways in which the digital environment can aid intelligence analysts and it will pinpoint both the strong and the weak points of the process.

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