Assessment Machinery: British and American Models

‘Assessments’ (or to the Americans ‘estimates’) are where intelligence bears most closely on policy. There is an intelligence ideal of objective and authoritative assessment for the top level of government. Disagreements over intelligence interpretations should be disengaged from interdepartmental policy differences and solved prior to decision-taking. The principle is the same as in the British Government Statistical Service's objective ‘to make sure that the Cabinet need never argue about statistics’. ¹