Intelligence Dissemination Management

Intelligence Dissemination Management

It is a classic maxim of intelligence that intelligence agencies do not make policy, but advise policymakers. Nevertheless, with an increasingly fast pace of operations, intelligence analysts may include choices of actions, with some projection of consequences from each. Intelligence consumers and providers still struggle with the balance of what drives information flow. Dissemination is the usual term for the part of the intelligence cycle that delivers products to consumers, and Intelligence Dissemination Management refers to the process that encompasses organizing the dissemination of finished intelligence.

Intelligence information ranges from the equivalent of "we interrupt this television program" to book-length studies which may, or may not, be read by policymakers. Large documents sometimes are legitimately for specialists only. Other lengthy studies may be long-term predictions. Recent worldwide events show that high-level policymakers simply do not read large studies; staff briefers may.

In principle, intelligence is merely informational, and does not recommend policies. In practice, there are at least two specialized ways in which the effects of alternatives are considered. One is variously called a net assessment, correlation of forces analysis, or strategic assessment, and goes through comparisons of capabilities of both sides, and analyzing what the effects of various actions might be. The other is to use both information on one's own capabilities and the best information on the others, and run realistic role-playing games or simulations, with people having senior policy experience either acting as the opposition, or possibly executing one's own role in a hypothetical situation.