ABSTRACT
A significant part of the Dutch contribution to Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali is a special forces unit, whose primary task it is to gather intelligence. All Sources Information Fusion Unit was located across different locations in Mali. This chapter focuses on Dutch Special Forces and analyses the process by which they collect, analyse and disseminate intelligence, and the challenges they meet doing this. The four main phases of the intelligence cycle: direction, collection, processing and dissemination. The chapter analyses the experiences of the first two rotations of the Special Operations Land Task Group, covering the period from April to December 2014. It contributes the understanding of how special forces obtain situational awareness in culturally complex environments. Intelligence within United Nations missions is still in its infancy and deploying special forces from one of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization countries within such a mission is rather unique.
