Intelligence Professionalism in the Americas - National Intelligence ...

But even when we accept in good faith the similarities that the intelligence cycle haswith the scientific research process, we must take into account that the different analysislevels also influence and condition the systematic application of the scientific method aswell as the techniques of analysis. At the tactical level, on occasion, we adopt a SherlockHolmes process, in which a kind of deductive reasoning is frequently employed. Thegreater structure and quantifiability of problems at the operational level, compared withthose at the strategic level, do allow the employment of structured analytic methods.On the other hand, strategic intelligence research, which primarily confronts qualitativevariables, must make do with a minimal number of these variables, must use lesstrustworthy subjective methods, and must make non-refutable inferences that do not guaranteecertainty. This type of research depends heavily on the researcher’s reasoning andjudgment. But it is precisely at this level, where a longer time horizon introduces us tosuch uncertainty, and where the phenomena under study extend to the very boundaries ofour understanding, that we can complete studies of greater depth, diversity and complexity,and can resort to human and social science experts and incorporate their methods andtechniques.Even if we take into account the existing differences between the research process typicalof applied science and the intelligence research process, the intelligence professionalsurely will have during his career some opportunities to conduct real applied science tosolve concrete problems, and the duty at all times and above all else, to maintain a scientificattitude.MAKING THE TRANSFORMATION TO INTELLIGENCE ORGANIZATIONS: THESYSTEMIC FOCUS OF SOCIAL AND SOCIO-TECHNOLOGIC SCIENCES 761The complexity and multidimensionality of social problems present challenges thatcannot be confronted by amateurs, but they can be so confronted by intelligence professionalsspecialized in socio-technologic disciplines. 762At this point there emerge some questions that require attention: What do we meanby “socio-technology”? What is the epistemic status of social-technologies? Whatphilosophic problems do they address? Is it pertinent to consider intelligence a socio-761 “There are no self-sufficient social sciences because all of them study the same thing: Therefore,they must be interdependent: The boundaries between them are in great part artificial. Even worse, toplace emphasis on those boundaries blocks progress, because it blocks the flow of different perspectiveson any one subject. The consciousness of this artificiality favors a unified focus on the study ofsocial events and on taking on complex and serious social problems. All of these problems are, by definition,multidimensional and difficult to solve. Which takes us to socio-technology” (emphasisadded). Bunge, 1999, 322.762 For more material on the relationship between science, society and technology, and the philosophicproblems addressed by technology, see Joseph Agassi, Technology: Philosophical and SocialAspects (Dordrecht and Boston: Reidel, 1985); Bunge, 1985 and 1996; and Carl Mitcham, ThinkingThrough Technology (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994).473