ABSTRACT
Throughout the history of interstate competition governments have been the primary actors utilizing intelligence to gain advantage over adversaries and to shape international narratives in their favor. The burgeoning discipline of open-source intelligence (OSINT) coupled with the technologically driven profusion of new forms of publicly available information are rapidly democratizing intelligence collection and analysis. These drivers are challenging the control state intelligence services historically enjoyed in these fields. In this chapter, the authors examine the Russia-Ukraine war for useful lessons and explore the extraordinary impact of the information domain within the context of the conflict, highlighting implications to the great power landscape. In a highly connected information environment, anyone can be a collector or analyst. This democratization of intelligence, which has produced an unprecedented level of publicly accessible battlefield transparency, will change how wars are conducted, reported, monitored, assessed, and who counts as a participant in the conflict itself. Future great power competitors will contend with an increasing level of public visibility into their actions. States that fail to appreciate the ascending role of OSINT and accordingly make investments to create asymmetries within the information domain will be at a disadvantage.
