ABSTRACT
In intellectual life we champion the human capacity for imagination and value the originality of analytical work. Even so, there are many external factors that constrain the imagination. Consider the media reports that suggested that the December 2010 social uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt came as a surprise to the US government. In a wide-ranging February 2011 interview on State of the Union with CNN’s Candy Crowley, Edward Walker and John Negroponte, two former ambassadors with deep diplomatic experience in the world—especially in the Middle East—discussed whether the US reaction to the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt constituted an “intelligence” failure. Ambassador Negroponte suggested that the intelligence analysis of the situation might have been better, but chose not to use the phrase “intelligence failure.” Both Ambassador Negroponte and Ambassador Walker agreed that that the US intelligence effort reflected a lack of imagination (Huffington Post 2011).
