GEOG 882
Geographic Foundations of Geospatial Intelligence

4.9 Summary and Final Tasks

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Summary

We had a lot of reading this week. Understanding the basics about the US intelligence community is an important foundation so you can ultimately understand where geospatial intelligence fits into the intelligence community and contributes to national security. Our six chapters covered:

  • the definition of intelligence as articulated by Lowenthal;
  • the evolution of the US intelligence system;
  • the layout of the US intelligence community and the functions of the major agencies;
  • the intelligence process of: requirements, collection, processing and exploitation, analysis and production, dissemination and consumption, and feedback;
  • the bedrock of intelligence-collection;
  • the mainstay of the process-analysis.

Remember that what you read was written by a national security insider who is a veteran of the CIA. His personal history and experience give him a particular cultural filter. Your challenge as a critical thinker is to recognize from where he comes, consider alternative approaches, and keep an open mind. Nevertheless, the US national security intelligence community is the most sophisticated, best funded, and far reaching intelligence establishment on the planet. Thus, it does rate our careful study and understanding even as we focus in on geospatial intelligence in both national security and other applications.

Final Tasks

Your last challenge this week is to take Lesson 4 - GRADED Quiz (#3) on this week's readings.

Deliverable: Lesson 4 - GRADED Quiz (#3)

Return to Lesson 4 in Canvas. Look for the Lesson 4 - GRADED Quiz (#3), where you will find the twenty-five-question quiz on this week's readings. Each question is worth two points. You will have unlimited time, and it is open book, but be forewarned. This is a tough quiz. To do well, you must have read and studied the readings.

Before you move on to Lesson 5, double-check the Lesson 4 Checklist to make sure you have completed all the required activities for this lesson.

Looking Ahead

I hope you like Lowenthal's book, because our next lesson is another reading week. Now that we understand the basics of how the US intelligence community works, in our next lesson, we are going to consider:

  • the role of the policymaker;
  • the legacy of the Cold War;
  • the new intelligence agenda;
  • ethical and moral issues in intelligence;
  • intelligence reform.

But first, you have to get through the Lesson 4 - GRADED Quiz (#3) successfully. Good Luck!