T_igger_cs_30

S-2
S-2,
Analysis is changing, the speed the requiered answers and Intel that are wanted/needed is head spinning.
Treverton & Gabbard in their paper "Assessing the Tradecraft of Intelligence Analysis" wrote about a balance has to be achieved through partnerships (academics, industry and governments)and boundaries established (all source v single int gather).
Access to information is so vast nowadays, the days of relying on the individual analyst are long gone (however, the human element "the threat of logic" cannot ever be discounted)
Outthinking the enemy is nothing new, but we are dealing with a completly new threat and enemy nowadays than we are traditionally used to. i.e. the Soviet Union for example.
And to that end to fully understand the new enemy and break down "Shabnama" and other cultural idiocyncrasies Anthropologists have to be accepted and encouraged to join the military community, now more than ever.
Just to compound things a little, neither can we forget or "put on the back burner" the threat from emerging powers either.

S-2,
I completely agree, however this raises another very difficult issue and dilema "negotiating with terrorists", how do we at this point change our stance, whilst saving face with the enemy?

WM,
your so right

__________________
FEAR NAUGHT

I don't work here ...I am an analyst!

Cactus

The Talibunnies have been very successful in recruiting across the tribal-lines among the 2 million odd Afghan refugees who had fled to Pakistan in the 1980s. While tribal affiliations persisted in the camps, it was not as easy to enforce as it was in the villages. In some villages almost everything, from the malik's (headman) strategically-situated house to the education his children receive, is rigged to perpetuate tribal identity and conformity. Such devices obviously were not so well-entrenched Pakistani camps, so it was much easier to recruit across tribal lines.

It is unclear how much of that can be extrapolated to patterns of 'bunny recruitment among the 12 million odd Pathans who didn't flee to the refugee camps across the borders, but endured on. It is also unclear what implies for the case of the exiled Abdali/Durranis, who probably weren't shunted to the worst of the refugee camps by the virtue of their better education and/or connections.

T_igger_cs_30