Networks: Terra Incognita and the Case for Ethnographic Intelligence
Military Review › Vol. 86 Nbr. 5, October 2006
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Summary
Clans, tribes, secret societies, the hawala system, religious brotherhoods, all represent indigenous or latent forms of social organization available to our adversaries throughout the non-Western, and increasingly the Western, world. Because these rules and connections form the "traditional methods of mobilization" used either to drum up support for or opposition to U.S. goals, they demand constant attention from the U.S. Government and Armed Forces.6 Simply put, EI constitutes the descriptions of a society that allow us to make sense of personal interactions, to trace the connections between people, to determine what is important to people, and to anticipate how they could react to certain events.
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Extract
Networks: Terra Incognita and the Case for Ethnographic Intelligence
Author's note: What I have chosen to call "ethnographic intelligence" might be more accurately described as "ethnographic information, " since much of the content involved in analyzing a hostile network will be opensource. I have chosen to retain "intelligence, " however, to indicate the military utility of the content involved.
THE PROLIFERATION of empowered networks makes "ethnographic intelligence" (EI) more important to the United States than ever before.2 Among networks, Al-Qaeda is of course the most infamous, but there are several other examples from the recent past and present, such as blood-diamond and drug cartels, that lead to the conclusion that such networks will be a challenge in the foreseeable future. Given the access these networks have to expanded modern communications and transportation and, potentially, to weapons of mass destruction, they are likely to be more formidable than any adversaries we have ever faced.Regrettably, the traditional structure of the U.S. military intelligence community and the kind of intelligence it produces aren't helping us counter this threat. As recent debate, especially in the services, attests, there is an increased demand for cultural intelligence. Retired Army Major General Robert...See the full content of this document
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