Ranked Retrieval and Extraction of Open Source Intelligence (FIRST INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM: NATIONAL SECURITY & NATIONAL COMPETITIVENESS: OPEN SOURCE SOLUTIONS Proceedings, Volume II)

The present uncertainties confronting the planner of future intelligence analysis systems are largely the result of the rapid disintegration of the Soviet Union as a world power and the resulting collapse of the Warsaw Pact. The impact of these political changes on the intelligence community has been enormous. With the Soviet threat significantly diminished, the rest-of-the-world has suddenly escalated in importance-a process from which a new set of national concerns and priorities has emerged., One force shaping this changed intelligence mission is the nearly explosive growth of open-source intelligence (OSINT). For example, with the breakdown of tight controls on the release of information from the former Soviet Union whole new libraries of technical literature are now flooding into the public domain. Within the United States, subscription database services are proliferating rapidly. This demand for information:will continue to grow within our society as its economic base continues to shift from industry to services. Furthermore, as global economic competition intensifies, economic data and assessment of the relative position of various countries' economies will become a focal point for intelligence analysis. It will be necessary to find ways to effectively handle this new wealth of information.