Katana VentraIP

Intelligence assessment

Intelligence assessment, or simply intel, is the development of behavior forecasts or recommended courses of action to the leadership of an organisation, based on wide ranges of available overt and covert information (intelligence). Assessments develop in response to leadership declaration requirements to inform decision-making. Assessment may be executed on behalf of a state, military or commercial organisation with ranges of information sources available to each.

This article is about evaluating sensitive state, military, commercial, or scientific information. For other uses, see Intelligence (disambiguation).

An intelligence assessment reviews available information and previous assessments for relevance and currency. Where there requires additional information, the analyst may direct some collection.


Intelligence studies is the academic field concerning intelligence assessment, especially relating to international relations and military science.

All-source intelligence

Intelligence cycle

List of intelligence gathering disciplines

Military intelligence

Surveillance

Threat assessment

Futures studies

Andrew, Christopher. For the President's Eyes Only: Secret Intelligence and the American Presidency from Washington to Bush (1996)

Black, Ian and Morris, Benny (1991)

Israel's Secret Wars: A History of Israel's Intelligence Services

essays by scholars

Bungert, Heike et al. eds. Secret Intelligence in the Twentieth Century (2003)

Dulles, Allen W. The Craft of Intelligence: America's Legendary Spy Master on the Fundamentals of Intelligence Gathering for a Free World (2006)

Kahn, David The Codebreakers: The Comprehensive History of Secret Communication from Ancient Times to the Internet (1996), 1200 pages

Lerner, K. Lee and Brenda Wilmoth Lerner, eds. Encyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence and Security (2003), 1100 pages. 850 articles, strongest on technology

Odom, Gen. William E. Fixing Intelligence: For a More Secure America, Second Edition (Yale Nota Bene) (2004)

O'Toole, George. Honorable Treachery: A History of U.S. Intelligence, Espionage, Covert Action from the American Revolution to the CIA (1991)

Owen, David. Hidden Secrets: A Complete History of Espionage and the Technology Used to Support It (2002), popular

Richelson, Jeffery T. A Century of Spies: Intelligence in the Twentieth Century (1997)

Richelson, Jeffery T. The U.S. Intelligence Community (4th ed. 1999)

Shulsky, Abram N. and Schmitt, Gary J. "Silent Warfare: Understanding the World of Intelligence" (3rd ed. 2002), 285 pages

West, Nigel. MI6: British Secret Intelligence Service Operations 1909–1945 (1983)

West, Nigel. Secret War: The Story of SOE, Britain's Wartime Sabotage Organization (1992)

Wohlstetter, Roberta. Pearl Harbor: Warning and Decision (1962)

Intelligence Literature: Suggested Reading List (CIA)

The Literature of Intelligence: A Bibliography of Materials, with Essays, Reviews, and Comments by J. Ransom Clark, Emeritus Professor of Political Science, Muskingum College