The Desperate Person's Guide To Gifts For Intelligence Analysts (Link List)

So, you have an intelligence analyst in your life and you want to buy him or her a gift.  I fully understand your horror at this prospect.  

They either already have it ("Picked it up from the second or third most obscure site on the Internet...") or it is impossible to find ("All I want is that Flemish-Urdu dictionary I keep asking for...").

SAM is here to help.  All of the gifts below have been rigorously tested using real analysts and are guaranteed to be better than a pair of socks.

Cover via Amazon

A Guide To The Good Life:  The Ancient Art Of Stoic Joy.  I just finished this book and I can heartily recommend it to the analyst in your life.  William Irvine, the author, has done an admirable job of dissecting the various strains of ancient stoic thought and re-mixing them for the modern world.  

Want a taste of stoic thinking?  From Marcus Aurelius (Emperor and noted stoic):  "If you work at that which is before you, following right reason seriously, vigorously, calmly, without allowing anything else to distract you, but keeping your divine part pure, as if you were bound to give it back immediately; if you hold to this, expecting nothing, but satisfied to live now according to nature, speaking heroic truth in every word which you utter, you will live happy. And there is no man able to prevent this." Even if you don't see why that is such an awesome quote, take it from me, your analyst will.

DMZ:  The Next Korean War.  This is an old-school, table-top, war game published by Decision Games that depicts a near-future war in the Korean Peninsula.  While the game is not based on any of the recent tensions between North and South Korea, your analyst will appreciate the care that has gone into this simulation as well as the opportunity to examine the terrain and orders of battle in detail.  If they can find another grognard, they may even be able to test out a few strategies they have been kicking around inside their heads.

Anything From Wondermark.  Wondermark is the strange and amazing online comic by David Malki.  Some of his best stuff he has compiled into books or put on t-shirts.  You may think that your analyst is too sophisticated for a ninja riding a unicycle t-shirt or a "The Revolution Will Not Be Telegraphed!" t-shirt, but, believe me, you're wrong (See below...)

(By the way, you can find more like this at Wondermark.com)

Do you have any other ideas about what to get an analyst?  Leave 'em in the comments!

Intelligence Issues For Congress (OpenCRS.org)

Image via WikipediaOne of my favorite sites for finding interesting new documents, Docuticker, recently highlighted an October, 2010 Congressional Research Service (CRS) report, Intelligence Issues For Congress. 

With a new Congress about to be sworn in and the balance of power shifting in the House, this list of issues is worth examining by anyone interested in the direction of the US national security intelligence community.

For those of you unfamiliar with the CRS, it is one of the most reputable sources of information and informed analysis currently available on the planet.

Unfortunately, it is exclusively for the use of members of Congress and, unless a member of Congress releases a report, the CRS's analysis does not see the light of day.  Organizations like the Federation Of American Scientists and OpenCRS.org pick up on any reports that are made public and host them (which is how Docuticker got this one).

Below is my edited version of the summary (You can download the full PDF here).  I cut out the stuff that I thought would be familiar to SAM's readers and have highlighted those parts (in bold) that I thought would most interesting.  Other than that, the words below are direct quotes:

• Making cooperation effective presents substantial leadership and managerial challenges. The needs of intelligence “consumers”—ranging from the White House to Cabinet agencies to military commanders—must all be met, using the same systems and personnel. Intelligence collection systems are expensive and some critics suggest there have been elements of waste and unneeded duplication of effort while some intelligence “targets” have been neglected.

• The DNI has substantial statutory authorities to address these issues, but the organizational relationships remain complex, especially for Defense Department agencies. Members of Congress will be seeking to observe the extent to which effective coordination is accomplished.

• International terrorism, a major threat facing the United States in the 21st century, presents a difficult analytical challenge, vividly demonstrated by the attempted bombing of a commercial aircraft approaching Detroit on December 25, 2009. Counterterrorism requires the close coordination of intelligence and law enforcement agencies, but there remain many institutional and procedural issues that complicate cooperation between the two sets of agencies.

• Techniques for acquiring and analyzing information on small groups of plotters differ significantly from those used to evaluate the military capabilities of other countries. U.S. intelligence efforts are complicated by unfilled requirements for foreign language expertise. Whether all terrorist surveillance efforts have been consistent with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA) has been a matter of controversy.

• Intelligence on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction was inaccurate and Members have criticized the performance of the intelligence community in regard to current conditions in Iraq, Iran, and other areas. Improved analysis, while difficult to mandate, remains a key goal. Better human intelligence, it is widely agreed, is also essential.

• Intelligence support to military operations continues to be a major responsibility of intelligence agencies. The use of precision guided munitions depends on accurate, real-time targeting data; integrating intelligence data into military operations challenges traditional organizational relationships and requires innovative technological approaches. Stability operations now underway in Afghanistan may require very different sets of intelligence skills.

Teaching Budgeting To Intelligence Analysts (Link List)

One of the things we like to expose our students to here at Mercyhurst is the unspeakable horror of the budgeting process.  If learning to be an intelligence analyst were not difficult enough, trying to figure out what that analysis is worth and what you can reasonably charge for it, is sheer, but necessary, agony for most students.

To make the process a little more interesting (or maybe just a little less onerous), there are a number of simulators that I have either used or would recommend to add depth to lessons on budgeting for intel analysts.  All of these simulations help teach the points that budgeting is often a series of painful trade-offs, that some expenses or policies that receive an awful lot of attention don't really matter when it comes to balancing a budget and, finally, understanding your priorities is the key to achieving your goals while staying within your budget.

http://doiop.com/BudgHero

Budget Hero.  This is one of my favorites and I have used this successfully in class.  This simulation asks the student to determine which policies they wish to enact and which they wish to ignore and then shows how their decisions will impact the US federal budget next year and over the next 20 years.  The data is mostly current and is based on Congressional Budget Office figures and projections. 

http://doiop.com/NYTBudgPuzz

New York Times Budget Puzzle.  The target in this recent interactive infographic is the same as above -- the US federal budget.  The presentation is very different, however.  The interface is simpler and it would be a better choice if time is an issue.

www.budgetsimulator.com

Budget Simulator.  This online product is very different from either of the previous two simulators.  Here, you can actually create your own budget, list your own priorities and involve your students in establishing what matters within the scope of a budget.  The possibilities here are quite intriguing.  For example, the East Sussex County  Council in the UK is using the simulator to help gather input on how they should cut the budget by a whopping 30%.  

I am sure there are other budget simulation programs and games available.  Leave your favorite in the comments!

147th Anniversary Of The Gettysburg Address (Britannica Blog and Neatorama)

On November 19, 1863, Abraham Lincoln stood up and gave a five minute dedication for the Soldier's National Cemetery at the Gettysburg battlefield that went on to become one of the most famous speeches in history.

In case you haven't heard it in a while, here is a pretty good reading of it.

Via Neatorama and the Britannica Blog 

Gettysburg Address from Adam Gault on Vimeo.

Does The Future Belong To Robots? (Institute For the Future)

The Institute For The Future does some interesting long-range analysis. In the past they have focused on a variety of issues including things such as health and food but recently they decided to take on robots.

The method in this most recent effort seems to be a more or less straight line extrapolation based on existing trends but, as with all deep-future work, one of the real benefits of the analysis is the mental model of the question.

The Institute sees robots participating in our lives at three levels (see the embedded graphic below for more details or download the PDF). The first, automation, appears to be where we are now, with robots automating processes that were formerly done by humans. The second level is augmentation, where robots add to our existing capabilities, such as driving the car for us. The final level is understanding, where robots begin to interact with us in ways that are indistinguishable from the ways we interact with other humans.

The Institute is also very good at visualizing their data and this chart is no exception. I think visualizing the results of analysis is a pretty important skill for all analysts, so I always take a look at their stuff for new ideas. The small embed below may be difficult to read or navigate so I strongly suggest downloading the PDF file so you can examine the style of report more easily and in more detail.

Another thing that might be interesting to readers who don't track this technology very closely is how many examples of each of these levels (and in how many areas) the analysts at the Institute were able to find. It seems that the robot future may be closer than we think. It is thought-provoking analysis on many levels.