Course Review: Critical Thinking in Intelligence Analysis
Course Background: The Intelligence and Security Academy has provided education and training support services to individuals and organizations across a variety of industries including the defense and intelligence communities, academic organizations and students, managers, and even financial professionals and venture capitalists. The specific course, Critical Thinking in Intelligence Analysis is tailored to the needs of intelligence analysts but can be useful to anyone who is interested in learning how to better analyze information to make better, more objective decisions. Instructors use case-based discussion as the predominant teaching methodology to introduce students to a variety of topics necessary to think through competing data effectively.
Customer Goal and Challenges: A consistent need for the Intelligence Community (and humanity as a whole) is the ability to make objective decisions based on a holistic view of all available information. Achieving this ability is easier said than done. Making objective decisions requires being able to determine what information is relevant, how to interpret competing relevant information, how to measure risk, identify logical fallacies, and much more. It often isn’t enough to simply be able to make objective decisions. If a person cannot communicate their analysis effectively, it is likely to be ignored regardless of merit. This requires analysts and others to understand ideas such as empathy, emotional intelligence, word choice, situational awareness, and cognitive biases.
The ISA Learning Approach: Our team of Intelligence Subject Matter Experts (including prolific individuals such as Neil Wiley and Dr. Mark Lowenthal) each bring decades of experience within intelligence community organizations, including experience with the Combatant Commands, Defense Intelligence Agency, National Intelligence Council, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. This experience has allowed our team to use real-world examples to develop a series of case study-based discussions and hands-on exercises that effectively teach students the foundation of intelligence analysis.
Benefits of the ISA Training Solution: Through taking the ISA’s course on Critical Thinking in Intelligence Analysis, students will understand the nature of intelligence, how to build analytic conclusions, the foundations of cognitive and social psychology required of analysts, diagnostic techniques, and forecasting techniques. These topics are taught in alignment with Intelligence Community Directive 203 but can be easily applied not only for intelligence analysts but also for anyone interested in making better, more objective decisions.