Governmental Intelligence

A valuable factor in international relations is the gathering and analysis of intelligence. Countries use many methods to gain intelligence about events that may happen and how it will relate to that country. There are many different ways that intelligence can be gained. Focusing on purely one way of gathering intelligence can bring big problems and lead to missing important parts of information. With the advancing of technology, the way of gaining intelligence has evolved.

Technology has evolved many things in international relations, such as warfare, and it has also changed the way that intelligence is collected. Before the advancement of technology, a very common way of gaining intelligence was through spying. Spying to gain intelligence was a very traditional method in the world of international relations. Just because technology has advanced does not mean that spies aren’t still used as a method of gaining intelligence. Although now it seems unorthodox spying is a traditional part of intelligence.

With technology intelligence can be gained through new electronic paths. Intelligence is gained through intercepting phone conversations and e-mails that may contain intelligence. Satellites are also used to track and locate many various pieces of information that could be of value. Technology has opened up many new ways of gaining information for countries and groups. Technology also brings in a lot more information that may be of no value at all. There are good and bad sides to traditional methods and the new electronic based methods.

With departments like the Central Intelligence Agency that are massive and gaining so much intelligence it can be nearly impossible to successfully put together information in a useful way. There are so many departments getting so many different sources of information how could the dots possibly be properly connected. The volume of intelligence that such departments are trying to gain also adds to the problem. It is an overwhelming amount of information and it takes a lot of time and effort to sort through it all.

Intelligence is involved in so many aspects of international relations. Relating a historical international relations moment to intelligence brings up the example of Pearl Harbor and the harm of focusing on one type of intelligence. Prior to Pearl Harbor intelligence agencies were keeping a close watch on the Japanese. The issues was that they were so fixated on one part of the information, talks between Tokyo and a representative that was in Washington D.C. together. Looking so closely on this information could have cause the agency to miss out on other information that could have been valuable to the events of Pearl Harbor.

Intelligence can provide great opportunities for a country to protect itself or to become more success. There are a lot of downfalls with intelligence though. For every piece of good information comes at least 100 pieces of bad information that are also in the mix. It is a very daunting task of international relations to efficiently run intelligence in a beneficial way and it is a true accomplishment when something valuable comes out of an intelligence agency.


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