Dan Mulligan, who teaches competitive and business intelligence here at Mercyhurst, just got back from a year in Iraq. The army put Dan to good use while he was there and he worked with the Intelligence Transition Team supporting the Iraqi Minister of Defense's Directorate General for Intelligence and Security.
As a result of these connections, students in my fall Strategic Intelligence class had a tremendous opportunity: Do a strategic intelligence project and present it to Iraqi analysts for feedback. The projects (using only open sources, of course) examined Middle Eastern governments in the region and their reaction to events unfolding in Iraq. The students, via teleconference, presented thieir findings in late November to Dan and several of the analysts in the Iraqi Ministry of Defense.
It was an extraordinary opportunity and the students took full advantage of it. They worked hard and put together a visually and analytically compelling product. The Iraqis were very generous with their time and the feedback given to the students was professional and positive. Everyone got something out of the experience.
It was, however, an enormous surprise and honor when Dan came back from Baghdad last month carrying with him Certificates of Appreciation signed by Mr. Stephen Bond, the Director of the Intelligence Transition Team and Major General Bakhtyar Thahir Al-Brazanchi from the Iraqi Ministry of Defense for all of the students who participated in the project.
Congratulations to all of the students who earned these Certificates!
1 comment:
It's that real world experience that set s this program apart every time.
What a nice gesture from the Iraqis as well. Maybe we CAN all just get along some day...
Nice work as usual, Kris.
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