Using Concept Maps to Improve the Practice and Organization of Intelligence in Canada

Intelligence production is a vital state function that supports military and policy decision Lefebvre, 2004) and, with today's " information tsunami " only gaining strength, it is increasingly 2002). While the intelligence function goes largely unnoticed by the public eye, intelligence failures that significantly impact human lives or international relations bring it acutely into the spotlight. Recent intelligence failures, such as those associated with the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the U.S. and misjudgment of Iraqi WMD capability, drew considerable public attention to the intelligence community and triggered a number of commissions of inquiry tasked with Although intelligence misjudgments are inevitable due to the uncertainty of events and inherent low predictability of human behavior (Brady, 1993; Heuer, 1999), the tendency to form poor judgments may be affected by several factors, including poor leadership, lack of inter-organizational coordination and information sharing (Hulnick, 2008), low quality of available information (Pritchard & Goodman, 2009), misinterpretation of available information due to