Intelligence analysts are special people simply because of their ability to combine science, art, and their craft to come up with solutions. Many people popularly differ on whether intelligence is an art of science. There are different opinions regarding this subject matter. However, I like to think that intelligence analysts cannot do without the art needed for the task and the science that powers it. This is to mean that intelligence analysis can be seen as a spectrum with two techniques. An analyst needs hints of both ends of the spectrum to be able to perform his duties satisfactorily. As a science, intelligence analysis can be viewed as a concept that is powered by technology, depends on more quantitative than qualitative information, contains hard data sets, is structured with rules, and is driven by logical reasoning and structured queries. As an art, the concept of intelligence analysis is thought to be powered by imagination, me more qualitative than quantitative, depend more on the thinking of the analyst, unconstrained, and made up of fuzzy problems. However, a more pragmatic approach to intelligence analysis dictates that analysts use their own imagination, wit, and thinking capabilities but require technology and laid structures to process these capabilities. This makes intelligence analysis both a science and an art. Considering all that has changed within the modus operandi of the CIA recently, I do not think the best judgment of its operatives in the field could be affected. As seen above, the science and structure component of intelligence analysis only works to power the art component. An operative’s best judgment lays more on the artistic side than the scientific side. A change in the scientific side does not significantly affect the reasoning power of the operatives.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
