This lesson will take a broad look at the history, organizations, and functions of the US intelligence community. Let me give you fair warning that this week is primarily a reading week. We are going to leverage the knowledge and experience of Mark Lowenthal, who wrote your textbook Intelligence: From Secrets to Policy, now in its ninth edition. Dr. Lowenthal has thirty years of intelligence experience in both the executive and legislative branches of government, as well as in the private sector. He retired in 2005 from the government, having served three years as both the Assistant Director of Central Intelligence for Analysis and Production and Vice Chairman of the National Intelligence Council for Evaluation. He now runs a national security education, training, and consulting firm called the Intelligence and Security Academy, and he is an adjunct professor at Columbia University.

My teaching approach this week is to have you read six chapters from the textbook. Fortunately, this book is very well written, the chapters are concise (short and to the point), and I found it very interesting and enjoyable reading. I want you to read the book in conjunction with the online lesson. I will provide questions to contemplate and guide you as you read each chapter. After you have read the chapter, you will complete the Lesson 4 - GRADED Quiz (#3), which you can take one time for your lesson grade.

Lesson Objectives

At the end of this lesson, you will be able to:

• discuss the concept of "intelligence" as articulated by Lowenthal (chapter 1);
• trace the evolution of the US intelligence system (chapter 2);
• examine the layout of the US intelligence infrastructure
• differentiate the functions of the major agencies (chapter 3);
• identify key components of the intelligence process, including: requirements, collection, processing and exploitation, analysis and production, dissemination and consumption, and feedback (chapter 4);
• identify the functions of collection and analysis as described by Lowenthal (chapters 5-6).

Lesson 4 will take us one week to complete. Please refer to the Calendar in Canvas for specific time frames and due dates. Specific directions for the assignments below can be found within this lesson.

Language has power. Those who get to determine definitions often get to determine the scope of "legitimate" discussion for a particular topic. Thus, certain discourses are legitimate and privileged, certain discourses are marginalized as less important, and some discourses may be tainted as illegitimate and not worthy or allowable for discussion. The legitimacy and privilege of a discourse is critical when it comes to resource allocation. Those with privileged discourse win, while those with marginalized or illegitimate discourses lose, to a lesser or greater degree.

From the Armed Forces to the NSA to the Treasury Department, PostTV breaks down the 16 different agencies and organizations that collect intelligence for the U.S. government—and the 17th office that oversees them all. Watch the video below. (Davin Coburn / The Washington Post)

Video: America's intelligence community, explained (2:11)

Analyst Training and Education

Reference the second bullet above on analyst's training; the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) puts great emphasis on training their analysts. As an example, NGA manages the GEOINT Professional Certification Program (GPC), part of a broader initiative to professionalize the Department of Defense Intelligence Enterprise workforce. Certifications are based upon a set of competencies associated with the knowledge and skills necessary to successfully execute the mission. Earning a GPC credential demonstrates proficiency in the content areas in the essential body of knowledge for that certification. These certifications promote interoperability across the GEOINT community and enable practitioners to demonstrate proficiency in the competencies that are common to their specific geospatial intelligence discipline. For additional information about this program, visit GEOINT Professional Certification.

GPC credentials are categorized as either proficiency at the fundamental level or within a specific GEOINT discipline or tradecraft. According to the GPC essential body of knowledge, core competencies at the fundamental level are:

• Demonstrate understanding of processes and techniques used in GEOINT problem-solving
• Understand source evaluation principles, tasking procedures, and collection requirements
• Understand GEOINT collection and production requirements
• Understand basic principles and techniques used to evaluate the utility and quality of geospatial data
• Understand the principles of Geographic Information Systems to display and analyze geospatial data
• Understand standards, policies, practices, and authorities governing GEOINT
• Understand the distribution of intelligence and data to mission partners, organizations, and individuals to support the GEOINT mission
• Understand how intelligence issues impact national and defense GEOINT mission priorities
• Understand the National System for Geospatial Intelligence and Allied System for Geospatial Intelligence
• Understand quality assurance in processing and exploiting GEOINT
• Understand strategies, techniques, and technologies used to identify, acquire, and filter sources of information
• Understand the policies and procedures involved with classification, control, and disclosure/release of information, intelligence, and data.

The U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF) is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the geospatial intelligence tradecraft.  USGIF supports academic programs and accredits colleges and universities that offer geospatial intelligence certificate and degree programs.  A list of accredited schools and the programs they offer can be found here: USGIF Academic Programs. Penn State's program was one of the first to be offered and accredited. An article about the beginning of this program is below.

Why are multiple programs offered in geospatial intelligence? Are these programs redundant, or do they fulfill different educational functions? Going back to your critical approach, do the different cultural filters and agendas of NGA versus academic programs influence the programs?

Summary

We had a lot of reading this week. Understanding the basics about the US intelligence community is an important foundation so you can ultimately understand where geospatial intelligence fits into the intelligence community and contributes to national security. Our six chapters covered:

• the definition of intelligence as articulated by Lowenthal;
• the evolution of the US intelligence system;
• the layout of the US intelligence community and the functions of the major agencies;
• the intelligence process of: requirements, collection, processing and exploitation, analysis and production, dissemination and consumption, and feedback;
• the bedrock of intelligence-collection;
• the mainstay of the process-analysis.

Remember that what you read was written by a national security insider who is a veteran of the CIA. His personal history and experience give him a particular cultural filter. Your challenge as a critical thinker is to recognize from where he comes, consider alternative approaches, and keep an open mind. Nevertheless, the US national security intelligence community is the most sophisticated, best funded, and far reaching intelligence establishment on the planet. Thus, it does rate our careful study and understanding even as we focus in on geospatial intelligence in both national security and other applications.

Final Tasks

Your last challenge this week is to take Lesson 4 - GRADED Quiz (#3) on this week's readings.

Before you move on to Lesson 5, double-check the Lesson 4 Checklist to make sure you have completed all the required activities for this lesson.

Looking Ahead

I hope you like Lowenthal's book because our next lesson is another reading week. Now that we understand the basics of how the US intelligence community works, in our next lesson, we are going to consider:

• the role of the policymaker;
• the legacy of the Cold War;
• the new intelligence agenda;
• ethical and moral issues in intelligence;
• intelligence reform.

But first, you have to get through the Lesson 4 - GRADED Quiz (#3) successfully. Good Luck!