ABSTRACT
Today, innovation is largely taking place within the private sector, which should prompt the industry to reconsider the core definition of intelligence as information bearing an element of secrecy with relevance for policymakers. The private sector encourages the kind of independent thought and risk-taking from which the components of the US Intelligence Community once derived their reputation. Over the last eight decades, these institutions have instead adopted a set of processes and habits that impose a rigid standardization on the form and content of analytical work. The concepts of timeliness, objectivity and non-politicization are now used to reinforce the boundaries of a scientific method that is extrinsic to the field and that increasingly serves as a poor substitute for quality.
