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'I commend Kjetil Hatlebrekke's book. It challenges readers to rethink our approach to the interpretation and use of intelligence, which is crucial to modern governments.'
Lord Robin Butler, Former UK Cabinet Secretary, Former Master of University College, Oxford
Moving beyond the flawed model of classic intelligence production
Why is intelligence so hard to define? Why is there no systematic or adequate theory of intelligence? This book argues that classic intelligence production has been premised on an ill-founded belief in an automatic inference between history and the future, and that the lack of a working theory has exacerbated this problem. Kjetil Anders Hatlebrekke uses classic cases of intelligence failure to demonstrate how this problem creates a restricted language in intelligence communities that undermines threat perception. From these cases Hatlebrekke concludes that intelligence needs to be re-thought and argues that good intelligence is the art of threat perception beyond the limits of our habitual thinking and shared experience.
Kjetil Anders Hatlebrekke is Associate Professor at the Norwegian Defence Intelligence School. He has served in the Norwegian Armed Forces since 1990, and served as an intelligence officer in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Anaconda.
Cover image and cover design: www.richardbudddesign.co.uk
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edinburghuniversitypress.com
ISBN 978-0-7486-9183-8
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List of contents
Abstract; Acknowledgements; List of Abbreviations; Introduction; Part I; 1 Cognition; 2 Intelligence and Discourse failure; Part II; 3 Secrecy and Intelligence Tribal Language; Part III; 4 On Collection; 5 On Analysis; 6 On Dissemination; 7 On Action and Decision by the Intelligence Consumer; Conclusion; Bibliography; Endnotes.
About the author
Kjetil Anders Hatlebrekke is Associate Professor at the Norwegian Defence Intelligence School. He earned his PhD from King¿s College, London. Hatlebrekke has served in the Norwegian Armed Forces since 1990, and has operational experience from Bosnia, Kosovo, the Middle East and Afghanistan. In Afghanistan he served as an intelligence officer in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Anaconda. The unit he was in was awarded the US Navy Presidential Unit Citation.
Summary
What is intelligence why is it so hard to define, and why is there no systematic theory of intelligence? Kjetil Anders Hatlebrekke creates a new, systematic model of intelligence analysis, arguing that good intelligence is based on understanding the threats that appear beyond our experience, and are therefore the most dangerous to society.
