science

Intelligence cycle

Intelligence cycle is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Intelligence cycle rather than just read about it. In short: The intelligence cycle is an idealized model of how intelligence is processed in civilian and military intelligence agencies, and law enforcement organizations. The Intelligence Cycle was invented in the United States in 1948 by Phillip Davidson and Robert Glass while they were serving as staffers at the United States Army Command and General Staff College.

Key takeaways

Intelligence cycle belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Intelligence cycle to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Intelligence cycle from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The intelligence cycle is an idealized model of how intelligence is processed in civilian and military intelligence agencies, and law enforcement organizations. The Intelligence Cycle was invented in the United States in 1948 by Phillip Davidson and Robert Glass while they were serving as staffers at the United States Army Command and General Staff College. From the US Army, the theory was spread throughout the intelligence field, where it is the most popular working theory of intelligence management today. It is a closed path consisting of repeating nodes, which (if followed) will result in finished intelligence. The stages of the intelligence cycle include the issuance of requirements by decision makers, collection, processing, analysis, and publication (i.e., dissemination) of intelligence. The circuit is completed when decision makers provide feedback and revised requirements. The intelligence cycle is also called intelligence process by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and the uniformed services.

Conceptual model

Direction Intelligence requirements are determined by a decision maker to meet their objectives. In the federal government of the United States, requirements (or priorities) can be issued from the White House or the Congress. In NATO, a commander uses requirements (sometimes called Essential elements of information (EEIs)) to initiate the intelligence cycle.

Collection In response to requirements, an intelligence staff develops an intelligence collection plan applying available sources and methods and seeking intelligence from other agencies. Collection includes inputs from several intelligence gathering disciplines, such as HUMINT (human intelligence), IMINT (imagery intelligence), ELINT (electronic intelligence), SIGINT (Signals Intelligence), OSINT (open source, or publicly available intelligence), etc.

Processing and exploitation Once the collection plan is executed and the data arrives, it is processed for exploitation. This involves the translation of raw intelligence materials from a foreign language, evaluation of relevance and reliability, and collation of the raw data in preparation for exploitation.

Analysis Analysis establishes the significance and implications of processed intelligence, integrates it by combining disparate pieces of information to identify collateral information and patterns, then interprets the significance of any newly developed knowledge.

Dissemination Finished intelligence products take many forms depending on the needs of the decision maker and reporting requirements. The level of urgency of various types of intelligence is typically established by an intelligence organization or community. For example, an indications and warning (I&W) bulletin would require higher precedence than an annual report.

Feedback The intelligence cycle is a closed loop; feedback is received from the decision maker and revised requirements issued.

Intelligence information cycle theory

The intelligence information cycle leverages secrecy theory and U.S. regulation of classified intelligence to re-conceptualize the traditional intelligence cycle under the following four assumptions:

Intelligence is secret information Intelligence is a public good Intelligence moves cyclically Intelligence is hoarded Information is transformed from privately held to secretly held to public based on who has control over it. For example, the private information of a source becomes secret information (intelligence) when control over its dissemination is shared with an intelligence officer, and then becomes public information when the intelligence officer further disseminates it to the public by any number of means, including formal reporting, threat warning, and others. The fourth assumption, intelligence is hoarded, causes conflict points where information transitions from one type to another. The first conflict point, collection, occurs when private transitions to secret information (intelligence). The second conflict point, dissemination, occurs when secret transitions to public information. Thus, conceiving of intelligence using these assumptions demonstrates the cause of collection techniques (to ease the private-secret transition) and dissemination conflicts, and can inform ethical standards of conduct among all agents in the intelligence process.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Intelligence cycle

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Intelligence cycle claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Intelligence cycle before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Intelligence cycle ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Intelligence cycle

In research: Intelligence cycle appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Intelligence cycle in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Intelligence cycle is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Intelligence analysis, Military intelligence, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Intelligence cycle outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Intelligence cycle in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Intelligence cycle means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Intelligence cycle out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Intelligence cycle in simple terms?

Why does Intelligence cycle matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Intelligence cycle?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Intelligence cycle.