HTST 489 Lecture Notes - Military Intelligence, Ethnocentrism
Document Summary
Issue of assessment have to distinguish between individual"s assessment and an organization"s. Distinction between bureaucratized decision making and an individual"s. Up til a couple centuries ago, decisions made by state were largely individual. Leaders would have access to data or be only one or two steps removed from it. Assessing the data themselves without any intervening body. Since wwi onward, find rise of large assessment bodies which handle most of the process of making sense of intelligence. When looking at assessment, in the last century it become more political than before. Treated as an element in political decision making. If you"re playing chess, running a business or a war, your assessment is different. Assessing intentions is more difficult that assessing capabilities, though assessing complex capabilities can be more difficult than assessing simple intentions. What to do with your next move is simpler to assess.