ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the general concept of obstacles to knowledge and to lay the groundwork for the discussions of particular types of obstacles. Whenever two or more studies of the same question arrive at different answers, one or both of the researchers has failed to surmount some important obstacles. One must learn how to recognize in advance the various obstacles and know how to surmount each of them efficiently. The chapter discusses the various obstacles one by one, and in conjunction with each obstacle, it discusses research tactics to overcome it. Government intelligence work generally, and spying in particular, resembles research in being a matter of first identifying the obstacles and then finding the appropriate methods to overcome them. Remembering that there are no standard solutions for obstacles can reduce researcher's frustration and anxiety in designing research. There is a wide variety of obstacles that prevent easy acquisition of reliable knowledge.
