Intelligence-cycle

National Security Intelligence assists governments in gathering, processing and analysing intelligence on threats and opportunities, but each step of the intelligence cycle — planning, collection, processing, analysis and dissemination — carries its own risk of failure, from data overload to the politicisation of findings. Drawing on episodes such as Operation CHAOS, Iran-Contra, 9/11 and the Iraq WMD assessment, this Strategic Insight argues that robust oversight is essential to guard against the abuse of intelligence powers even as it acknowledges the inherent limits of what intelligence can achieve.