Instructor: Carol E.B. Choksy
cchoksy@indiana.edu
Mondays 9:30-12:15
Office Hours: By appointment
Fall 2006
In war as in business, surprise can be a powerful strategic weapon. This course draws parallels among military, government, and business planning, and explores the role of intelligence and counterintelligence in achieving and preempting surprise. Sherman Kent defined strategic intelligence as the "kind of knowledge a state must possess regarding other states in order to assure itself that its causes will not suffer nor its undertakings fail because its statesmen and soldiers plan and act in ignorance." With one or two word changes, this definition could apply equally well to the world of government or business. In competitive, high-velocity markets, ignorance of other players' actions, or of developments in the wider business environment can prove costly. Ignoring important social movements such as the demand for transparency can damage a company's reputation or a citizen's confidence in the government. A government's clear lack of planning for disaster and lack of execution in recovery from that disaster can also damage citizen confidence that government is performing its duties properly.
At the societal level, the chances of achieving, or being subjected to, strategic surprise have increased with the growth of internetworking technologies and the opportunities these afford for various forms of information warfare (IW) and Net terrorism. The more an organization or a society depends on information and communication technologies (ICTs), the greater its vulnerability to asymmetric attack. What applies in the realm of national security also holds for the world of commerce. Computer Network Defense (CND) and Computer Assurance (CA) have thus become a necessary "cost of doing business" for many firms. In practical terms, CND and CA mean identifying mission critical information assets, conducting threat assessments, implementing information systems security, personnel practices, and developing distributed intelligence and counterintelligence capability.
The rise of the network society is accompanied by significant social costs. Recent developments in global terrorism (state-sponsored and otherwise) have exposed the limitations of bureaucratically-structured, highly-centralized intelligence services. As sub-state actors, supranational coalitions, and other groups (e.g., organized crime) create stealth organizations and enthusiastically adopt the principles and methods of network-centric warfare. The intelligence community is being forced to reexamine many of its traditional operating assumptions and governments are questioning the validity of the nation-state concept.
The perspectives offered by this course are broad, ranging from strategic marketing and knowledge management, through competitive intelligence and military intelligence. The total environment is explored; what is visible and what is masked; what is stated and what is understood; what is overt and what is covert. This course introduces various concepts of intelligence and the different contexts where these concepts are applied: the idea of intelligence is not restricted to national security, or corporate competition; it can apply at the level of the individual citizen or the community.
Attendance and constructive participation throughout the course are required. If a student misses more than two classes, no final grade will be awarded. Final grades will be based on:
Classroom participation (10%)
Annotated bibliography (30%)
What is a network? (30%)
Term paper (30%)
Classroom participation requires a minimum of one contribution per class. All students are expected to contribute to class discussion. Fluency in spoken English is not required. Students who are not fluent in English should speak to the instructor on the first day of class.
Annotated bibliography: Each student will select a topic including: government, business, education, libraries and information centers, society and perform research to collect a bibliography of strategic intelligence on that subject. The annotations will consist of a brief statement of the listing and an evaluation of each. At least 3 pages, but not more than 10.
What is a network?: A paper that may include a visualization of one of the networks described in Networks and Netwars. The paper should describe the possible structures of social networks, spatial, temporal, and social, as well as some of the features of the core nodes that affect persistence. 10 pages, not including bibliography.
Term paper: Each student will select a topic of strategic intelligence and use the ideas discussed in class: disruptive technologies, scenarios, social expectations, disasters, etc. to analyze the topic. Papers must clearly utilize in-class ideas to analyze their topics. 15 pages, not including bibliography. The paper will be presented in class during the last weeks of the term.
High proficiency in reading English. Good proficiency in spoken English.
The following definitions of letter grades have been defined by student and faculty members of the Curriculum Steering Committee and have been approved by the faculty as an aid in evaluation of academic performance and to assist students by giving them an understanding of the grading standards of the School of Library and Information Science.
| A | 4.0 | Outstanding achievement. Student performance demonstrates full command of the course materials and evinces a high level of originality and/or creativity that far surpasses course expectations. |
| A- | 3.7 | Excellent achievement. Student performance demonstrates thorough knowledge of the course materials and exceeds course expectations by completing all requirements in a superior manner. |
| B+ | 3.3 | Very good work. Student performance demonstrates above-average comprehension of the course materials and exceeds course expectations on all tasks as defined in the course syllabus. |
| B | 3.0 | Good work. Student performance meets designated course expectations, demonstrates understanding of the course materials and performs at an acceptable level. |
| B- | 2.7 | Marginal work. Student performance demonstrates incomplete understanding of course materials. |
| C+ C |
2.3 2.0 | Unsatisfactory work. Student performance demonstrates incomplete and inadequate understanding of course materials. |
| C- D+ D D- |
1.7 1.3 1.0 0.7 |
Unacceptable work. Coursework performed at this level will not count toward the MLS or MIS degree. For the course to count toward the degree, the student must repeat the course with a passing grade. |
| F | 0.0 | Failing. Student may continue in program only with permission of the Dean. |
Mintzberg (1987) "Crafting Strategy"
Porter (1979) "How Competitive Forces Shape Strategy"
Week 2 September 4 Disruptive Technologies
Alternative frameworks for understanding business strategy. What are the root
causes of missing out on the "next big thing."
Christensen (2000) The Innovator's Dilemma
Recommended Reading: Moore, G. (2005) Dealing with Darwin: How Great Companies Innovate at Every Phase of Their Evolution
Week 3 September 11 Disruptive Social Expectations
Information about organizations can be gathered and disseminated more easily
using the Internet. Society expects a new level of transparency from businesses
and government.
Tapscott and Ticoll (2003) The Naked Corporation: How the Age of Transparency Will Revolutionize Business
Week 4 September 18 Disruptive Social Forms
Terrorist, criminal, and militant networks have been further enabled by new
ICTs. How can information be gathered about these networked groups when they
appear to be amorphous?
Arquila and Ronfeldt (2001) Networks and Netwars: The Future of Terror, Crime, and Militancy
Recommended Reading: Arquila, J. & Ronfeldt, D. (1996). The advent of netwar. RAND. Campen, Allen D., Dearth, Douglas H., & Goodden, R. Thomas. (1996) Cyberwar: Security, Strategy and Conflict in the Information Age. Fairfax, VA: AFCEA International Press.
Week 5 September 25 Disruptive Nature
The effects of extreme nature are called disasters, but disasters are as
man-made as they are natural. Government policies, or lack of them, can create
disasters, so can a government's response, or lack thereof. What intelligence is
necessary to ensure disasters do not happen.
Wisner, Blaikie, Cannon, Davis (2004) At Risk: Natural Hazards, People's Vulnerabilities, and Disasters
Week 6 October 2 Disruptive Global Change
The most extreme effect of globalization is the burgeoning business of illegal
activities.
NaÍm (2005) Illicit: How Smugglers, Traffickers, and Copycats are Hijacking the Global Economy
Transparency International (2003) "Access to Information," Global Corruption Report. http://www.transparency.org/publications/gcr/download_gcr/download_gcr_2003#download
Baker, Raymond "Capitalisms' Achilles Heel: Dirty Money and How to Renew the Free-Market
System," for RSA Manifesto Challenge: Advancing Global Citizenship http://www.thersa.org/acrobat/baker_190106.pdf
Recommended viewing: "Lord of War" [video recording] (2006) Santa Monica, CA: Lions Gate Entertainment.
Bibliographies due
Week 7 October 9 Intelligence from the Inside
Guest speaker 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM: Dean Blaise Cronin
Robert Baer (2002) See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on Terrorism
James Fallows (2004) "Will Iran Be Next: Soldiers, spies, and diplomats conduct a classic Pentagon war gamewith sobering results'" The Atlantic Online. http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/print/200412/fallows
In class scenario, Iran's Nuclear Program: Atlantic Monthly (2004) Iran's Nuclear Program Scenario http://www.npr.org/documents/2004/iran_wargame.pdf
Week 8 October 16 Competitive Intelligence
Competitive intelligence: functions, structures, roles, techniques, tasks, and
products. Analyzing competitors, customers, markets, trends, emergent
technologies. Approaches to competitor profiling: corporate footprints and body
language. Corporate counterintelligence, economic espionage and business
intelligence production models.
Gilad (2003) Early Warning: Using Competitive Intelligence to Anticipate Market Shifts, Control Risk, and Create Powerful Strategies
Recommended Reading: Fialka, J. J. (1997). War by other means. New York: W.W. Norton. Kahaner, L. (1996). Competitive intelligence. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Week 9 October 23 No Class
Week 10 October 30 Asynchronous Attacks
How others use ICTs to gather covert intelligence about us and how we can
protect ourselves.
Jones, Kovacich, Luzwick (2002) Global Information Warfare
Recommended Reading: Denning, D.E. (1999). Information warfare and security. New York: Addison Wesley.
Networks paper due
Week 11 November 6 Industry Clusters and Government
Limitations
What is a cluster? How can governments use intelligence to deter or encourage
development?
Porter (1998) "Clusters and Competition: New Agendas for Companies, Governments, and Institutions" 197-287 in On Competition, edited by Michael Porter.
El Kholy "How Egypt's Information Policy Affected Development," 99-110 in Intelligence for Economic Development: An Inquiry into the Role of the Knowledge Industry, edited by Dedijer and Jequier.
Week 12 November 13 Case Study of a Failure
How the disaster was missed and what the disaster was. How organizational
structure contributed to the mis-steps.
U.S. House of Congress, Select Bipartisan Committee to Investigate the Preparation for and Response to Hurricane Katrina. A Failure of Initiative: The Final Report of the Select Bipartisan Committee to Investigate the Preparation for and Response to Hurricane Katrina.
In class viewing: PBS. Frontline: The Storm. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/storm/.
Recommended Reading: U.S. Executive Office of the President (2006) The Federal Response to Hurricane Katrina: Lessons Learned.
Week 13 November 20 Reshaping Intelligence
What intelligence is not. Forces shaping what and how information is
gathered.
Gregory F. Treverton (2003) Reshaping National Intelligence for an Age of Information
In class scenario, Nuclear Device Exploded in Brussels:
Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and Nuclear Threat
Initiative (NTI), Strengthening the Global Partnership (2005) Black Dawn
Final Report http://www.sgpproject.org/events/Black%20Dawn%20Final%20Report.pdf
Week 14 November 27 Student case studies
Week 15 December 4 Student case
studies
Term papers due
Arquila, John and David Ronfeldt (2001) Networks and Netwars: The Future of Terror, Crime and Militancy. Santa Monica: Rand. ISBN 0-8339-3030-2
Atlantic Monthly (2004) Iran's Nuclear Program Scenario http://www.npr.org/documents/2004/iran_wargame.pdf
Baer, Robert (2002) See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on Terrorism. New York: Three Rivers Press. ISBN 1-4000-4684-X
Baker, Ramond "Capitalisms' Achilles Heel: Dirty Money and How to Renew the Free-Market
System," for RSA Manifesto Challenge: Advancing Global Citizenship http://www.thersa.org/acrobat/baker_190106.pdf viewed 30 March 2006
Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), Strengthening the Global Partnership (2005) Black Dawn Final Report. http://www.sgpproject.org/events/Black%20Dawn%20Final%20Report.pdf
Christensen, C. M. (2000). The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail. New York: Harperbusiness. ISBN 0-06-052199-6
Fallows, James (2004) "Will Iran Be Next: Soldiers, spies, and diplomats conduct a classic Pentagon war gamewith sobering results'" The Atlantic Online. http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/print/200412/fallows
El Kholy "How Egypt's Information Policy Affected Development," 99-110 in Intelligence for Economic Development: An Inquiry into the role of the Knowledge Industry, edited by Dedijer and Jequier. Oxford: Berg. Class Intranet
Gilad (2003) Early Warning: Using Competitive Intelligence to Anticipate Market Shifts, Control Risk, and Create Powerful Strategies. New York: AMACOM. ISBN 0-8144-0786-2
Jones, Kovacich, Luzwick (2002) Global Information Warfare: How Businesses, Governments, and Others Achieve Objectives and Attain Competitive Advantages.. Boca Raton, FL: Auerback Publications. ISBN 0-8493-1114-4
Mintzberg, H. (1987, July-August). Crafting strategy. Harvard Business Review, 6-75. In EBSCO, Business Source Premier
NaÍm , Mois (2005) Illicit: How Smugglers, Traffickers, and Copycats are Hijacking the Global Economy. New York: Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-51392-5
Porter (1979) "How Competitive Forces Shape Strategy" Harvard Business Review, 2-57 In EBSCO, Business Source Premier
Porter, M. E. (1998) "Clusters and Competition: New Agendas for Companies, Governments, and Institutions" 197-287 in On Competition, edited by Michael Porter. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business Review. Class Intranet
PBS. Frontline: The Storm. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/storm/.
Tapscott and Ticoll (2003) The Naked Corporation: How the Age of Transparency Will Revolutionize Business. New York: Free Press. ISBN 0-7432-4650-0
Transparency International (2003) "Access to Information," Global Corruption Report. http://www.transparency.org/publications/gcr/download_gcr/download_gcr_2003#download
Treverton, G. F. (2001). Reshaping National Intelligence for an Age of Information. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-53349-X
U.S. House of Congress, Select Bipartisan Committee to Investigate the Preparation for and Response to Hurricane Katrina. A Failure of Initiative: The Final Report of the Select
Bipartisan Committee to Investigate the Preparation for and Response to Hurricane Katrina. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 2006. http://katrina.house.gov/
Wisner, Blaikie, Cannon, Davis (2004) At Risk: Natural Hazards, People's Vulnerabilities, and Disasters. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-252164
Arquila, J. & Ronfeldt, D. (1996). The advent of netwar. Santa Monica, CA: RAND.
Campen, Allen D., Dearth, Douglas H., & Goodden, R. Thomas. (1996) Cyberwar: Security, Strategy and Conflict in the Information Age. Fairfax, VA: AFCEA International Press.
Choo, C. W. and Auster, E. (1993). Environmental scanning: acquisition and use of information by managers. Annual Review of Information Science and Technology (ARIST), 28, 279-314.
Cronin, B. (ed.). (1996). Information, development and social intelligence. London: Taylor Graham.
Cronin, B. (2000). Strategic intelligence and networked business. Journal of Information Science, 26(3), 133-138.
Cronin, B. and Crawford, H. (1999). Raising the intelligence stakes: corporate information warfare and strategic surprise. Competitive Intelligence Review,10(3), 58-66.
Cronin, B. and Crawford, H. (1999). Information warfare: its application in military and civilian contexts. The Information Society, 15(4), 257-263.
Cross, Robert L., Brodt, Susan E. (2001) "How Assumptions of Consensus Undermine Decision Making," Sloan Management Review 42, (Issue 2, Winter ): 86-94. In EBSCO, Business Source Premier
Dedijer, S. and Jequier, N. (eds.). (1987). Intelligence for economic development: an inquiry into the role of the knowledge industry. Oxford: Berg.
Denning, D.E. (1999). Information warfare and security. New York: Addison Wesley.
Fialka, J. J. (1997). War by other means. New York: W.W. Norton.
Johnston, Rob, (2003). Developing a taxonomy of intelligence analysis variables. Journal of the American Intelligence Professional 47, no. 3 http://www.cia.gov/csi/studies/vol47no3/article05.html
Kahaner, L. (1996). Competitive intelligence. New York: Simon & Schuster.
"Lord of War" (2006) Santa Monica, CA: Lions Gate Entertainment [videorecording].
Moore, G. (2005) Dealing with Darwin: How Great Companies Innovate at Every Phase of Their Evolution. New York: Portfolio.
Tzu, Sun (2003) The Art of War. Translated by Ralph D. Sawyer. Philadelphia: Running Press.
U.S. National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States (2004) The 911 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office.
U.S. Executive Office of the President (2006) The Federal Response to Hurricane Katrina: Lessons Learned.