Assignment

Construct a 12 to 15 page paper addressing the substantive issues surrounding a topic you are interested in regarding intelligence and homeland security. You may engage resources from the course materials.

The paper should be 10-12 pages in length (MAXIMUM) and bibliographic content is not included in the page length. Students are required to have at least 10 sources to back up their original content. In intelligence analysis assessments are made and then numerous sources are used to justify trends seen to better indicate future behavior. The class is emulating that type of environment for students and prepares students for these types of analytical demands. The focus on writing original analysis and supporting claims with numerous citations (ie message traffic).

Your paper should be focused around a central question such as the following. (You may use any one of these, or construct your own as long as it is within the substance of the course.)

1. How can the US Intelligence Community best provide accurate, relevant and timely indications and warnings of potential threats?

2. What caused the intelligence failure of 9/11 and how can this be corrected in the future?

3. Why is strategic warning a "unique analytic challenge that demands continued reassessment and improvement"?

Your objective for the assignment is to research your topic, synthesize the information, apply noted analytical processes, and then build a recommendation that a policymaker could use in the future, with regards to your topic. Do not forget to provide the recommendation.