Foreword
It is a pleasure for me – and gives me professional satisfaction – to present this book to the Iberian public. I have known the author for several years, and admired his efforts to translate the lessons from his past life into useful capabilities in the commercial and public intelligence domains.
While some will consider this book to be about spies and secrets and undertakings of great risk, for me it is really a book that can help the public understand that intelligence is not only about spying or secrets. Intelligence is mostly about knowing. Intelligence is about creating ethical evidence-based decision-support for everyone, not just prime ministers and general officers.
Intelligence is about sources and methods – the inputs – and it is about helping leaders of organizations make decisions – the outcomes. Intelligence is about arriving at the best possible understanding of the truth, from all points of view. In commercial intelligence we call this the 360 degree view.
In the pages that follow, I will illustrate and explain four additional points that might help engage public attention in this book’s important offering:
First, spies comprise four of the fifteen “slices” of Human Intelligence (HUMINT). They are the first and most important part of a larger mosaic. I particularly demand good counterintelligence – without it, nothing else can be trusted.
Second, the government intelligence “tribe” is one of eight tribes of intelligence. The other seven tribes need to learn how to “do” intelligence.
Third, our complex world can no longer tolerate governments or corporations that treat the Earth as a personal bank account. The time has come to demand a professional 360 degree perspective focused strictly on the public interest.
Fourth, we can all come together to share most of what we collect, process, and analyze. Sharing creates intelligence.
Continue reading “Robert Steele: Foreword to Spanish-Language Diary of a Spy with PRB Approval”
