Need for Intelligence and counterintelligence: Challenges

Need for Intelligence and Counterintelligence: Challenges and Future Preview
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Abstract
The need for intelligence and counterintelligence has gained popularity over the recent past following the rampant terrorist attacks in many countries, although intelligence gathering is a practice that has been in play for centuries. This paper examines this need with a special focus on the challenges encountered by the intelligence community in intelligence and counterintelligence gathering. The key challenges identified include technological, financial, and organizational. Also, the phenomenon of the lone wolf in recent terrorist attacks has been identified as an emerging challenge in intelligence gathering. The paper also presents a preview into the future of intelligence and counterintelligence based on the findings from the systematic review of research articles on the issue.
Need for Intelligence and Counterintelligence: Challenges and Future Preview
Introduction
The need for intelligence and counterintelligence has been raised every time a country experiences a threat to its national security, whether through terrorism or war. Often, the intelligence community is expected to have foreseen and prevented such attacks since the role of intelligence and counterintelligence is to collect and analyze information so as to detect and prevent threats to national security. Intelligence and counterintelligence have a long history as they have been used by states and organizations as a source of power over the enemy. At the state level, intelligence and counterintelligence activities have been used to protect national security and save lives. For instance, the United States (US) benefited greatly from intelligence and counterintelligence during the cold war. While intelligence and counterintelligence have been in play for many centuries, different states have made various reforms to ensure that their intelligence and counterintelligence activities align with current threats to national security and the safety of their citizens. The role of intelligence and counterintelligence is crucial and as indicated by Mandel and Irwin (2020), it ensures that decision-makers can make decisions with as little uncertainty as possible. Intelligence gathering also facilitates investigative activities especially when a nation is faced with threats to the critical infrastructure, terrorism, or espionage among others.
Despite the need for intelligence and counterintelligence, there are some key challenges that the intelligence community faces daily. Intelligence and counterintelligence relies a lot on implied or suggested knowledge (Nolan, 2018), thus overwhelming individuals in the intelligence community as they try to perform their role. Also, intelligence work requires a high level of secrecy to preserve covert assets and protect the members of the intelligence community. Therefore, the need for intelligence and counterintelligence is accompanied by its share of equally significant challenges.
Problem Statement
While many states acknowledge the need for intelligence and counterintelligence, many are still facing a mountain of challenges that need to be addressed. Gaitan (2017) reveals that intelligence and counterintelligence activities can be a useful strategic tool for states in determining what intelligence activities foreign states are engaging in. In turn, this can help states create better foreign policies as well as reduce their vulnerability to deception by foreign states. This is especially important because the highest national policies are often made in the face of uncertainty. After all, many aspects are unknown. Intelligence and counterintelligence are a great source of information, albeit derived more from judgment rather than pure facts (Mandel & Irwin, 2020). However, the importance of intelligence and counterintelligence has been crippled by many challenges. These challenges threaten the very core of intelligence and counterintelligence role in enhancing national security.
Purpose Statement
The aim of this paper is to explore and describe the common challenges in intelligence and counterintelligence and the impact of these challenges if left unaddressed. The focus will be mainly on the technological, political, financial, and organizational challenges. Also, this paper will provide a preview of the future of intelligence and counterintelligence with a special focus on the role that technology will play in the future.
Hypothesis
The hypothesis for this paper is that the need for intelligence and counterintelligence is being threatened by current challenges in intelligence gathering.
Definitions of Terms
The definition of the terms below is in the context of security.
Intelligence: Information collected within and outside the borders of a country, both open and secret, to be analyzed and used in detecting and preventing internal and external threats (Carlisle, 2015). This information is critical, especially to decision-makers within the government, in informing policies about national security.
Counterintelligence: Information collected by states to protect themselves against espionage and other intelligence activities of foreign governments (Carlisle, 2015). This information is critical in thwarting the efforts of enemies against a country.
Intelligence gathering: This is the process of collecting information to have detailed knowledge about imminent threats to a country’s national security.
Tacit knowledge: This is the knowledge that cannot be transferred from one person to another through written or verbal communication (Nolan, 2018). In intelligence work, it is difficult to have explicit knowledge due to the need of maintaining secrecy to protect information.
Intelligence community: This entails the various organizations and agencies that are responsible for gathering and analyzing information to provide decision-makers with intelligence. The core mission of the intelligence community is to provide information about potential threats to a nation’s security.
Hybrid warfare: This is warfare that involves the use of not only conventional capabilities such as military assets but also cyber, paramilitary, and other irregular tactics (Gaitan, 2017).
Literature Review
Due to the secret nature of intelligence work, there are limited sources of articles and studies on intelligence and counterintelligence. However, several authors have conducted research in the discipline of intelligence work and as such, provide a source of literature on intelligence work. The research articles will be reviewed in this section.
One of the most prevalent threats that have facilitated the need for intelligence and counterintelligence is terrorism. Many countries have made reforms in the intelligence and counterintelligence activities to deal with the threat of terrorism head-on. Yet, as revealed by Barnea (2018) one of the greatest challenges in intelligence and counterintelligence is the phenomenon of a lone wolf (individuals who act independently with no affiliation to any state enemy) in terrorism. The role of intelligence organizations in different countries is to identify and counter any security threats, yet individual terrorists have made it difficult to identify or even predict their terrorist activities. In fact, many terrorist attacks by these independent individuals have caught intelligence organizations by surprise, thus painting them as failures in their intelligence and counterintelligence gathering activities. The phenomenon of the lone wolf is considered a challenge to intelligence organizations because a majority of these individuals do not operate in the same manner as Islamic-led terrorist groups, although some of their beliefs are informed by the teachings of the Islamic religious ...