Defining Strategic Intelligence - Assignment Example

In this period, there has been an increased threat to U.S national security, more than ever before. There are several factors contributing to these threats such as increased development of weapons of mass destruction, more countries becoming nuclear power, increased formation of a terrorist organizations, rebellious groups taking refuge in other countries and operating against U.S interests, etc. It can easily be seen that, during the 21 century, there has been an increased threat to a country’s security and national interests.

The infamous 9/11 incident that shook the world and brought Al Qaeda on the big screen, the London bombings of 2005, the Mumbai attack in 2008, etc. All these infamous incidents show that every country is under extreme threat whether it is from terrorist organizations, infiltrates within the country, or due to any other reason. A country has to take steps and measures to protect its country and the U.S being a global nuclear power and a world dominant is very natural to say that it has to safeguard its interests the most.

It is safe to assume that the U.S would have the best strategic intelligence cycle in place, but it too is liable to mistakes, such as in 2003 when the strategic intelligence information confirmed that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and therefore invaded Iraq; however, later they were proved wrong as there were no WMD(Johnson 2007). There have been several factors identified by the National Intelligence Security (NIS) which may cause harm to U.S National interests, however, the most significant is Violent Extremism: It has been identified by the NIS that violent extremist groups such as Al-Qaeda, Taliban, etc will continue to pose a great threat to U.S security. It has been acknowledged that these people are not causing threats to acquire money or abduction but they are seriously out for what they call revenge and will take any possible steps to cause disharmony and violence in different regions. They have previously done that on several occasions and in different countries such as the U.S, U.K, etc which shows that they can reach such places even when there is the tightest security present. The steps identified by the U.S to counter them are to identify such terrorist groups and people, intercede and disrupt, cut off aid and supply of weapons of mass destruction and stop their operations.

Enhance Cyber security: Enhancement of cyber security is a significant step that the U.S should take to reduce the threat of proliferation through cyberspace. It has been identified that the architecture of the U.S digital structure is not very secure (Johnson 2007). It was found out that there have been attempts to valuable information from the Pentagon through cyberspace. Now, all the information is stored digitally, so there has been an increased attempt by these terrorist groups to explore future advancements in America’s intelligence organizations, so they may act accordingly.

Through cyberspace, these terrorist organizations have attempted to change or steal information to undermine the nation’s confidence and attack the country (Johnson 2007).