I wonder why states collaborate on intelligence collection and analysis?

Speaker(s):

Cynthia M. Nolan, American Public University System

Abstract:

I wonder why states collaborate on intelligence collection and analysis actually starts with failure. Intelligence failures are often very public events and the rest of the world wonders what the solutions to these failures could be. Surely someone knew (so the thinking goes) that something was going wrong. Surely someone had access to the intelligence that would have prevented this failure (or so most people think). This research project will work with the collective assumptions that most observers make on intelligence failures and asks whether collaboration avoids failure. In the aftermath of 9/11, a failure of communication within the American intelligence community was widely blamed for "not connecting the dots." Assuming that the same lessons learned from intrastate collaboration can be applied to interstate collaboration, this research would potentially ask: Can a network of intelligence cooperation solve intelligence failures and when is that cooperation most likely?