Intelligence Analysis: Concepts and Application in Australia - Report Example

AUSTRALIA INTELLIGENCE ANALYSIS [Name] [Course] [Date] Introduction Intelligence in any state is very essential for protection of its citizens living in or out of the state from internal and external factors. According to Warner, intelligence is a secret group or state activity in order to understand or influence domestic and foreign entities1. He further defines intelligence analysis as the application of collective and individual cognitive methods in order to weigh data or information and test hypotheses within a secret social and cultural context2. The definition of intelligence in Australia is based either by the way it was obtained or by the possible outcomes. Based on the way it was obtained, it is defined as information that is covertly obtained without the government’s authority or the authority of a group that owns such information. Or secret intelligence is defined as an intelligence that is being sought by other in order to prevent you from knowing, usually with violent sanctions and formidable security barriers against the ones willing to cooperate with security barriers3. On the basis of what the intelligence has enabled the government to do, intelligence has various definitions. It is the information that is gathered in the government for policy makers which gives an illumination of the choices open to policy makers and provides them with the ability to make good judgement. It is analysed and refined information for it to be useful to the policy makers in times of making decisions, in particular, decisions regarding to potential threats to the security of the nations. Among the many definitions of Australian intelligence, it can be summarised as information which enables you to protect your interests as well as maintaining a valuable advantage in the advancement of your interests against the ones posing threat to you4. Since 1974, Australian intelligence has been undergoing reforms due to emergence of various occurrences. Among the main occurrences that led to these reforms are increase in terrorism, advancement in technology, and the traditional security interests of Australia since the Second World War. In order to analyse the Australian intelligence, this essay will first explain the nature of Australian intelligence. Secondly, it will analyse the traditional security interests of Australia, terrorism and technological advancements as the main causes of intelligence reform. The nature of Australian intelligence This section will involve description of Australian Intelligence Community, main disciplines of intelligence information, and the development of intelligence community. According to Davies, the institutions of intelligence in every state reflect either the civilian or the military origins of the respective communities5. The same case applies to Austria where there are various agencies that provide Australian government with intelligence. The Australian intelligence community (AIC) consists of six agencies of the government with a primary mission of providing security6. First, the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) whose role is provision of the capability of human intelligence as well as secret intelligence that is not readily available through other means to protect and support Australians. Second, the defence signals directorate (DSD) which provides signal intelligence as well as support and advice on information security7. Third, is the defence imagery and geospatial organisation (DIGO) that provide geospatial intelligence based on various sources such as imagery in support of national interests and defence of Australia. Fourth, consist of the organisation of Australian security intelligence (ASIO) for advising the government of Australian security threats and domestic and foreign Australian interests. Fifth, consists of the defence intelligence organisation (DIO) which provides all-source of advice and intelligence for supporting the interests and defence of Australia8. Finally, the Office of National Assessments (ONA) that deepens the Australian capacity to act in ways that serve the Australian interests throughout the world to enable the government to increase its understanding in regard to international developments9. In his explanation of intelligence, Loch notes that the key characteristics of intelligence are secrecy and acquiring of intelligence information without authorisation from any group that owns the information or the government10. Australian intelligence categorises its intelligence into three main disciplines: intelligence obtained trough contact between people that is, human intelligence (‘humint’); intelligence obtained from photography that is imagery (‘imint’); and that obtained using electronic communications by eaves dropping that is, signals (‘sigint’)11. According to Christopher, the development of intelligence throughout the world is usually influenced by world events12. This is the same situation that has led to the growth of intelligence in Australia. As a result of this, there are a number of independent reviews that has been conducted in order to maintain the quality of intelligence. These include the Flood review (2004) based on Iraqi’s weapons of mass destruction, Taylor review (2004) based on post -9/11 terrorism threats, Street review (2007) based on national security patterns, Smith review (2008) based on Australia’s boarder and homeland security13, and the 2011 review14. Traditional security interests In their analysis of intelligence, Roger and Bruce noted that among the many functions of intelligence, it leads to understanding of regional as well as international environment that a state is willing to tackle. In addition, it supports for an ambitious and active foreign defence and trade policy by providing clues about others intentions15. The reforms in Australian intelligence are aimed at overcoming the challenges and threats in order to maintain its traditional security interests especially in the Asia-Pacific region. This means that with the increase in sources of threats in the region, the performance of Australian intelligence is required to be strongest. Furthermore, for Australian government to take advantage of various opportunities such as economic opportunities in the region, high quality intelligence is required. In order to comply with such varying factors, intelligence reforms come on the way16. According to Hughes et al., every state needs to retain or improve its capability in war fighting and the reason behind this being that the world we are living in is dangerous. This means that a country needs to build the capability of impressive intelligence that is essential in addressing the current conflicts17. Furthermore, with rising powers and tensions in any region, the intelligence also needs to be upgraded in order to maintain the country’s position worldwide18. In order to maintain its traditional security interests, Australia has been deploying its defence forces in the region where tension is rising. Such deployments require an intelligence support that is extensive. This is because the there is also a change in the nature of war fighting which require more detailed analysis as well as tailored intelligence product to coincide with the time frame. Due to demand of intelligence in greater details, there must be reforms in order to contain the situation19. Jervis Robert noted that from the events that take place in the world, states can learn the cause of intelligence failure. Based on the lessons of such events, a state can be able to identify areas that need reform20. For instance, the capability of weapon of mass destruction gave Australian intelligence a good ground for identification of areas that needs to be improved. Christopher adds that such improvement lead to growth of intelligence through experience as well as collaboration with states with higher levels of intelligence such as US and UK21. Based on the case study of Iraq, there were various areas that Australian intelligence recognized which needed improvement, especially in collection and analysis of information. Such themes include: application of great rigour on the evaluation of sources; more rigour in identification the required intelligence gaps; and paying greater attention in regard to the assessment of the language to ensure consistent judgements among others22. Russ also adds that such when a state is capable of identifying such challenges in intelligence, they will be in a better position of making adjustments in order to improve various areas based on an event that has occurred. Failure to exploit such an opportunity will lead to the failure of intelligence23. Herman also noted that the power of intelligence can be recognized in control of events such as war. Thus, based on intelligence failures in certain events in the world, it serves as a cautionary lesson for policy makers to consider reforms24. Terrorism In recent years, terrorism has proved to be a national security threat to any country in the world as the world has been facing numerous attacks. Emergence of such terrorist plots through out the world has called for an increased capability of national security in order to fight against terrorism. Such moves are enhanced through reforms in intelligence25. According to Posner, there are states that have remained targets for terrorists. The 9/11 decade transformed the world into a new era of challenges in security. Such challenges required reforms in intelligence in order to step up efforts of fighting terrorism. With most immediate threats, such attacks need to be disrupted by using high levels of intelligence. By intercepting information, many countries had been able to prevent various planned attacks26. Australia has been facing challenges on threats of terrorism. Since such attacks reached their neighbourhood, they had to come up with ways of increasing the homeland security with the assistance of their partners such as Indonesia and others in order to degrade the threat27. Richelson and Desmond add that due to the threat of such an event in the world, reforms in intelligence are driven by the cooperation between the affected countries. Such a reform leads to an upgrading of the intelligence of one state with its partners such as ties between Australia, United States and United Kingdom in order to overcome the threat of terrorism in each country28. Such collaboration leads to reforms for improving various areas in regard to intelligence. However, Agrell notes that due to much tension on terrorism, most countries have increased their privacy by making a lot of information secret. As a result when more than enough information in a country becomes private, nothing in this country will be intelligence. Thus, it is important to focus on the critical information in order to improve the quality of intelligence29. Based on the case study, the bombings in Bali after the September 11 attacks created an enormous impact to Australia in terms of threats from terrorism. The impact included improvement of Australian intelligence through partnership with other nations. They needed to dig deep in order to understand the interaction of Islamic extremism with the politics in the region. After the incidence, Australian intelligence team and Indonesia worked together to identify those behind the Bali attack. Such efforts were supported by a substantial increase in intelligence resources within the intelligence community30. Reveron noted that intelligence sharing in regard to war on terror is one of intelligence reforms where countries work together to fight a threat that is a common problem to the partners31. This is one way that brought reforms to Australian intelligence. Technology According to Treverton and Agrell, the future of every state is enhanced by entering into new era of intelligence in order to face the technological changes of that time. At such a point, the country is capable of entering into maturity in regard to intelligence by its ability to meet the increasing demands32. The same case applies to Australia as it is entering into an era where more intelligence is needed in order to cope with the rise of countries in the region. For instance, economic growth in the region has made some of these countries to emerge the world powers thus increasing the impact and importance of intelligence. Such reforms in intelligence are brought automatically by advancement in technology. Clift noted that the internet is also maintaining an extra ordinary growth in the world where the world is becoming dependent on internet. With such advancement, every government is interested in upgrading its intelligence in order to maintain maximum secrecy on its information on the internet33 Abrams and Joyce add that the telecommunication industry is becoming highly dynamic as they are evolving to reflect global telecommunication network architecture. This has led to classification of individual files transmitted on telecommunications in order to prevent a range of intelligence insights belonging to a certain country34. Such reforms in telecommunications has upgraded intelligence as the countries look for safe ways of preventing the threat of the availability of intelligence insights to foreign countries as well as other malicious actors. With intrusions in the county’s privacy through the internet, countries have acknowledged publicly the importance of fighting cyber war through state supported hacking. Such capabilities require the country to expand its intelligence capabilities in order to overcome such threats. Such reforms are technology-driven and Australia has changed its intelligence policies to enable protection of the government systems and meet high end threats35. Conclusion Since 1974, the Australian intelligence has been undergoing reforms due to emergence of various occurrences. Based on this article, the intelligence reforms in Australia can be broadly divided into three. First, such the reforms occurred due Australian the efforts to maintain its security interests in the region. Such include maintaining its middle power in the region, deploying security in war torn countries in the region to maintain peace among others. Second, after the 9/11 attacks, the world entered to the new era of fighting terrorism leading to intelligence reform. Third, advancement in technology led to another era of intelligence reform as they country upgrade intelligence to fight cyber war. Thus, it can be concluded that the key to intelligence reforms is due the challenges that face the world as time progresses. As a result, it becomes necessary to upgrade intelligence in order to overcome such challenges. Bibliography Abrams, M & M Joyce, New Thinking About Information Technology Security. 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