Educing Information: Interrogation - National Intelligence University

cultures. To some extent this can be achieved through university research within
the United States or through field tests. However, both of these approaches have
limitations. Foreign-born students in U.S. universities are somewhat acclimated
to U.S. culture, so the ability to generalize from this research may be limited.
Opportunities to perform field tests with subjects under U.S. custody will be
sparse. This suggests a need to develop cooperative research arrangements with
other nations to engage in this research in their university and perhaps military
settings.
Summary of Venues
The table below summarizes this discussion by showing how different types
of eduction practices can be investigated in different venues. Eduction practices
vary by whether they seek tactical, short-term results (e.g., immediately detect
deception) or strategic, long-term results (e.g., build rapport). They also vary
according to the degree of coercion employed or stress induced. As the table
shows, the different venues are appropriate for examining different categories of
eduction practices.
No Stress
Low Stress
Moderate
Stress
Extreme
Stress
Tactical/
short-term
results
University
Research;
Military
Research;
Foreign
Research
Military
Research;
SERE Students;
Contemporary
Interrogations
SERE
Students
No Research
Venues
Strategic/
long-term
results
University
Research;
Military
Research;
Foreign
Research
Contemporary
Interrogations
POW
Records
POW
Records
Research venues appropriate for different types of eduction practices.
Source: The author.
Taken together, the diversity of research venues suggests that researchers
have substantial opportunities to assess scientifically many, if not all, of the
eduction practices that the United States might employ. They can also conduct
substantial retrospective scientific inquiries into practices the United States does
not employ.
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