incorrect

y Colonel Nichoel E. Brooks and Jami Forbes
Introduction
The intelligence enterprise is at a crossroads–it is facing an
environment of shrinking resources while also being expected
to meet growing responsibilities and requirements.
In particular, the Army Intelligence Corps, seasoned by decades
of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, must expand its focus
to more complex and unpredictable global threats and
issues.
Emerging adversarial forces, enabled in part by technological
advancements and increased access to information, are
becoming more adaptive, decentralized, and transnational
than ever before. In addition, the developing missions of the
Army’s Global Response Force (GRF) and Regionally Aligned
Forces (RAF) require a greater understanding of not only
unconventional and adaptive adversarial forces, but diverse
human domains across the world. Intelligence must be agile
enough to help win current and future contingencies, while
also supporting efforts to prevent conflict and providing the
information needed to shape the global environment.
Technologies and rapidly changing world conditions are
creating unprecedented challenges for the intelligence process.
The intelligence cycle–which has long centered on a
hierarchical, regional, and centralized enemy–has traditionally
spanned weeks and months. However, this process
must change in order to meet current conditions and mission
demands. The accelerated pace of conflict is limiting
the amount of time Army commanders have to both shape
the environment and form decisions, reducing the intelligence
cycle to a mere days and minutes. Undoubtedly, the
demand for timely, predictive, and accurate intelligence is
more important than ever.
How will we ensure national security in this new environment?
How will the Army Intelligence Corps foster trust and
provide its leaders with decision confidence? How will we
not only be first with information, but first with the truth?
In order to evolve and meet these challenges, we must first
recognize four basic interlocking dilemmas that are facing
the broader Intelligence Community (IC) today. These dilemmas
center on capacity, transparency, data, and time.
The Four Dilemmas Facing Army Intelligence
“Although the Intelligence Corps is faced with interlocking
dilemmas involving capacity (increasing demand for intelligence
during an era of declining resources), transparency
(opaqueness between organizations), data (greater access
to data than ever before), and time (the rapid battle
rhythm of the information age), there are steps underway
to help mitigate these issues”
Capacity. Declines in the Army’s end strength and shifting
fiscal priorities are realities all Army pillars are currently
facing. However, for the Intelligence Corps, the reduction
of resources comes at a time when an increasingly complex
operational environment is driving greater demand for analytical
capacity.
Army intelligence must continue to support requirements
in Iraq and Afghanistan, while also broadening its understanding
of conflicts involving adaptive sub-state actors in
the Middle East and North Africa, the expanding crisis and
threat to regional stability in Syria, emerging missions and
new allies in Africa, and growing cyber threats. In addition,
intelligence professionals will be required to bolster support
to RAF and GRF by providing information on local populations,
political officials, power brokers, and the global
human domain–all critical data points in helping to foster
enduring partnerships around the world.
Transparency. Challenges relating to declining capacity
directly interlock with dilemmas involving transparency.
40 Military Intelligence