Why does intelligence analysis sometimes fail?
The Art of the Intelligence AutopsyIt’s no secret that intelligence services the world over don’t always get things right, but what leads their highly trained analysts to come to the wrong conclusion about a situation? Are intelligence failures a consequence of poor data, inaccurate information, a bad source; or are they caused by analytical preconceptions, misinterpretations and flawed human cognition? Writing in the journal Intelligence and National Security, James J. Wirtz of California’s Naval Postgraduate School discusses the art of the ‘intelligence autopsy’; post-mortem