ABSTRACT
In a “handbook” for intelligence studies, the place to begin is with a definition of what intelligence means. Formally, professional officers define the term in both a strategic and a tactical sense. Broadly, a standard definition of strategic intelligence is the “knowledge and foreknowledge of the world around us – the prelude to Presidential decision and action.”1 At the more narrow or tactical level, intelligence refers to events and conditions on specific battlefields or theaters of war, what military commanders refer to as “situational awareness.” In this volume, the focus is chiefly on strategic intelligence, that is, the attempts by leaders to understand potential risks and gains on a national or international level.
