The submitted essay should be between 15 and 20 double-spaced typed pages (12 pt font). It can be a research paper that was or is being written for a formal class during the fall 2007/spring 2008 academic year or can be a completely original essay. The essay should focus on a topic within one of the following three areas:
1. How has the intelligence world changed since the end of the Cold War, since 9/11 and what might be new priorities for the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) come January 2009?
The intelligence targets, missions and methodologies changed after the end of the Cold War in 1991 and even more dramatically after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. And there may well be another sea change coming if the next president of the United States should decide to deemphasize the current overwhelming focus on terrorist threats. How well has the IC adapted to these changes through 2007? What are possible new priorities for U.S. foreign policy come 2009 such as a revitalized Russia under President Putin, which would likely require revised intelligence efforts and techniques? Is the Director of National Intelligence preparing the IC for the future?
2. Social and Legal Issues
With the emphasis at the direction of the Bush Administration on the Global War on Terror by the U.S. Intelligence Community since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, a number of social, civil liberty and legal issues have arisen in America. The boundary between domestic and foreign intelligence activities has been blurred, the rules changed on cooperation between the FBI and the CIA and the Justice Department has taken very aggressive positions on what it considers legal actions by the Executive Branch without requiring review by any court. Americans have come to accept personal inconveniences when they travel and greater intrusion into their privacy all in the name of security, but what is the proper balance between “greater efficiency” in preventing terrorist acts and guarding civil liberties? Has the Congress exercised its proper role of reviewing activities done in the name of counterterrorism by the various federal Intelligence agencies?
3. Technology Issues -- Question of the value of high technology intelligence collection in counterterrorism work and how new technologies have forced changes in intelligence methodologies.
With the shift by America’s Intelligence agencies from traditional espionage activity against nation states to counterterrorism being the primary mission of the IC after 9/11, some of the technical collection techniques that were valuable during the Cold War, e.g. satellite imagery, SIGINT and ELINT, no longer appear to be particularly useful. Overhead imagery is good at counting the number of fighter planes or tanks that a country has; it is unlikely to be able to indicate if a villager standing in southern Afghanistan is a terrorist or not. While perhaps difficult to decode, the NSA always knew that signals of interest came out of the embassies and official ministry buildings of previous target countries. Now the problem is how to even find the one interesting terrorist-related phone call out of the millions made every minute around the world.
In addition to some techniques being of reduced value because of the changed target, others have become outmoded and required major improvement with the arrival of the digital age and other scientific advancements. The NSA for example has had to shift from monitoring analog signals to the flow of billions of bits and bytes per minutes traveling over fiber optic cables and over cellular and satellite phone calls. Even in the Human Intelligence (HUMINT) world, changing technologies have created problems. How can spies operate in alias and cross borders with the growth of biometrics and the possibility of almost instantaneous background checks over the internet on people’s credit, education and residency history?
Contact Adjunct Professor Gene Coyle for further details: by phone 812.855.2889 or
Email
Please submit completed essay to Professor Coyle in SPEA 341.
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