Prior to WWII, strategic security matters were essentially ad hoc functions of the U.S. military war-planning. World War II and the advent of the Cold War awakened the United States to be more proactive in security issues as a matter of national survival. The potential of nuclear warfare made policy makers increasingly aware of a need for a formalized approach in defining strategic security issues. Policy makers also recognized the need to train students in security issues to become productive members of the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC). Elite military war colleges became de facto intelligence schools, taking on the research and analysis problems of the new strategic security environment. Rand Corporation was established in 1948 as the premier precursor to private industry strategic "think tanks" for the government. The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) became involved in this intelligence education process as the result of an Eisenhower-appointed study group which examined the structure of U.S. foreign intelligence. The military and the "think tanks" were joined by a few prestigious public and private universities in this quest to provide quality education to students on critical strategic security matters that were ever-evolving during the Cold War era.
During the 1960 -1980 period, new threats to the United States began to emerge as harbingers of the future. The arrival of various disparate terror groups in the 1960s such as the Red Army Faction, Black September, and the Abu Nidal Organization, with their orchestration of airline hijackings and assassinations, became the progenitors to such non-state terror organizations typified by Hezbollah, Hamas and al Qaeda. The reality of this new threat from non-state terror groups was not adequately understood at the time; the IC remained focused on the Soviet Union as typified in the Air War College development of the first comprehensive block of studies on the Soviet Union. These terrorist events made little impact on how evolving intelligence education issues were perceived and defined regarding these new threats.
The United States now sees strategic security threats which are diverse in nature and yet often related: examples include cyber crimes to criminal enterprises in drug and human-trafficking, as well as political/economic instability and global terrorism. The fluidity of what defines a strategic security threat can only be met with an equally flexible infrastructure in intelligence education. A most significant factor in adapting this flexibility towards these new strategic threats is the emergence of online intelligence schools which are complemented by the extensive data resources on the Internet. The role and importance of the online education in the intelligence education process demonstrates that the professional intelligence opportunities are now opened to a broad population of qualified students; it no longer is the sole province of the few organizations of the past. Online education allows the opportunity to learn from anywhere and at any time. Homeland Security magazine lists over 180 schools providing online instruction in "Homeland Security" with a majority of the schools offering online programs.
Online intelligence schools must ensure that the academic aspects of the strategic security challenge are solidly reinforced by teaching critical central principles. This academic rigor is necessary but not sufficient; there also must be a corollary practical dimension to this intelligence education process. This required additional dimension for online and resident security education demands that these institutions include faculty members who have actually practiced the arts and crafts of intelligence and security as operators in the field of clandestine missions; this "operator-professor" serves as a "best resource" for students to learn the theory and the pragmatic applications outside academia. The opportunity is now available for individuals interested in strategic security careers to pursue the necessary education from the undergraduate to doctorate degree levels.
Dan Sommer works for Henley Putnam University, a leading educational institution in the field of Strategic Security. For more info on Henley Putnam University, intelligence education, intelligence schools, visit us online at www.Henley-Putnam.edu
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