This is one of two seminal documents in circulation in the Spring and Summer of 1997. The financial numbers in this document were vetted and modified as necessary by Don Gessaman and Arnie Donahue–they are suitable for a President or a Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and still valid today adjusted for inflation. The other is the study done by Boyd Sutton on The Challenge of Global Coverage (click on the frog to go directly to that study. In both instances, because the recommendations were at odds with the conventional bureaucratic desire to increase secret technical intelligence capabilities, the reports were ignored.
PLATINUM Jack Davis, Virtual Dean of US All-Source Analytic Corps
For over three decades, Jack Davis has been the heir to Sherman Kent and the mentor to all those who would strive to be the world’s most effective all-source intelligence analysts. As a Central Intelligence Agency analyst and educator, he combines intellect, integrity, insight, and an insatiable appetite for interaction with all manner of individuals regardless of rank and disposition. He is the most able pioneer of “analytic tradecraft,” the best proponent for the value of human analysis over technical processing, and one of those very special individuals who helped define the end of 20th Century centralized analysis and the beginning of 21st Century distributed multinational multiagency analysis.
Note: Awarded in advance of IOP '07 to celebrate Jack Davis' 50th uninterrupted year as an all-source analyst and mentor to all analysts.
The Compendium is 45 pages in all and consists of a Foreword, Summary, and then ten Notes to Analysts:
Philippe Clerc has been active in World Information Forum and related activities at the international level, and in France within the emergent economic and financial intelligence environment. Below is his presentation to OSS '96.
It merits mention that the French learned a hard lesson in 1993–their steel industry realized that their competitive intelligence effort against all other steel industries had failed because they did not consider steel substitutes–the plastics industry emerged overnight and supplanted steel in the automobile industry and elsewhere. It was while learning this in Paris in 1994 that we realized it was vital to “cast a wide net” and not narrow-cast open source information acquisition.
The educational system is in complete disarray and producing masses of mediocrities. Occasionally, however, a student overcomes the inherent liabilities of a factory/rote learning system and excels. This paper from a Georgetown student of D.r Loren B. Thompson is worthy and was included in the Proceedings of OSS '96.
