Critical Thinking Skills for Intelligence Analysis
In support of the US Air Force, EBR is currently developing an advanced training approach for improving the ability of intelligence analysts to assess and anticipate the operational behavior of regional adversaries and insurgency groups. This training emphasizes the types of sensemaking activities and knowledge products associated with (1) dynamically maintaining a contextual understanding of the battlespace, (2) constructing a hypothesized model of an adversary’s decision space, and (3) employing these knowledge frameworks to interpret or anticipate a stream of emergent events and conditions within the battlespace. The framework of analysis combines the rigor and organization of traditional systems engineering with more advanced methods of soft systems analysis and narrative analysis to provide intelligence analysts with a rich repertoire of methods for constructing and communicating an understanding of an adversary to military commanders and planners.