Intelligence Collection

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The act of collecting intelligence about individuals, groups, or states of interest has come under increasing scrutiny since September 11, 2001. RAND has examined how nations successfully collect intelligence, how the U.S. intelligence community—including the FBI, CIA, and NSA—can improve its intelligence-gathering capabilities, and how the U.S. military can make better use of its limited land-, sea-, and air-based intelligence collection assets in the rapidly changing battlefields of the future.

Report
Measuring Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Effectiveness at the United States Central Command
U.S. Central Command Directorate of Intelligence is interested in developing a repeatable process to measure the effectiveness of its intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) operations and activities. What methodology can be used to accomplish this?
Jan 20, 2021
Commentary
An Early Policy Victory for DNI Haines: Boost the Priority of Open Sources Information
The quantity, quality, and accessibility of publicly available information has exploded over the past decades. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines has an opportunity to advance intelligence community mission activities on several key issues shaped by the digital information age, including the role of publicly available information.
Mar 4, 2021

Explore Intelligence Collection

Report
When Jihadis Come Marching Home
Although the numbers of Westerners slipping off to join the jihadist fronts in Syria and Iraq are murky, U.S. counterterrorism officials believe that those fighters pose a clear and present danger to American security.
Feb 16, 2015
Report
Building the Guatemalan Interagency Task Force Tecún Umán: Lessons Identified
USSOUTHCOM intends to use the Interagency Task Force (IATF) Tecún Umán as a model for new counternarcotics units in Guatemala. This report describes lessons learned from the IATF and provides recommendations for resolving challenges.
Feb 9, 2015
Blog
Could the Sydney Café Siege Happen Elsewhere?
As the world mourns those lost in the Sydney café siege, investigations have begun examining the efficacy of Australia's anti-terrorism measures and details about the background and motives of the gunman. At the same time, terrorism experts are reflecting on where else such an attack could emerge.
Dec 17, 2014
Commentary
Why the Senate Intelligence Committee and the CIA May Both Be Right
Given that many questions of fact regarding the CIA's program of enhanced interrogation techniques can probably never be conclusively answered, the real issue comes down to a value judgment: whether inflicting physical pain on prisoners is an acceptable means of reducing the risk of terrorist attacks.
Dec 12, 2014
Commentary
When Jihadis Come Marching Home
The existing pool of determined jihadists in America is very small and lacks training and experience, which fighting in Syria and Iraq would provide. Returning jihadi veterans would be more formidable adversaries. Still, the threat appears manageable using current U.S. laws and existing resources.
Nov 19, 2014
Blog
Setting Standards for Cyber Security
Developing international norms and standards about appropriate cyber security activity by nations, groups, and even individuals is key to governing online activity in the future, said NSA Director Adm. Michael S. Rogers during a panel discussion at RAND's Politics Aside event.
Nov 14, 2014
Commentary
Ebola: The Faceless National Security Threat
The rapid, uncontrolled spread of aggressive diseases such as Ebola is often a matter of national security. U.S. intelligence professionals must establish relevant information collection and dissemination mechanisms to deal with such contingencies.
Sep 10, 2014
Announcement
Brian Michael Jenkins Joins Elite Panel on Domestic Intelligence Gathering
Brian Michael Jenkins, senior adviser to the RAND president and an expert on transportation security and terrorism, has joined the “Blue Ribbon Panel,” which will preside over work by a Business Executives for National Security task force to determine whether post-9/11 reforms have kept pace with evolving threats to homeland security.
Aug 26, 2014
Commentary
How Do We Deal with a Flood of Data?
Despite the battle-tested value of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) systems, the amount of data they generate has become overwhelming to Navy analysts. If the Navy does not change the way it processes information, it will reach an ISR “tipping point”—as soon as 2016.
Jun 23, 2014
News Release
'Cloud' System Could Help Navy Analysts Consume Expanding Ocean of Data
The Navy has a growing demand for intelligence to help Navy vessels avoid collisions, pinpoint targets, and perform other vital tasks. But the amount of data it may collect in the future is more than it can process today. Cloud strategies offer promising options.
May 5, 2014
Commentary
Why 'Big Data' Can't Find the Missing Malaysian Plane
The failure to find the missing aircraft demonstrates anew the serious gaps in data coordination and challenges public assumptions about the thoroughness and simplicity of searching the world's data for answers.
May 1, 2014
Report
'Cloud' System Could Help Navy Analysts Consume Expanding Ocean of Data
The Navy has a growing demand for intelligence to help Navy vessels avoid collisions, pinpoint targets, and perform other vital tasks. But the amount of data it may collect in the future is more than it can process today. “Cloud” strategies offer promising options.
May 1, 2014
Commentary
The Real Homeland Security Issues for 2014
Americans should be able to discuss the terrorist threat and how best to meet it, how much of the country’s precious resources should be devoted to homeland security, and the impact intelligence efforts can have on personal privacy and freedom.
Feb 5, 2014
Commentary
The Facts About the Metadata 'Menace'
Metadata from a phone call include information such as the direction (who called whom), length, date and time. The program does not record the location or the name associated with a call. No one is listening to the call and no content is recorded.
Jan 26, 2014
Commentary
After NSA Spying Revelations, US Must Reform Rules on Secrecy and Data
The U.S. should make two key reforms. First, the over-designation of material as classified makes it is harder to protect the few real secrets; this must be change. Second, the FISA court must become a gatekeeper for NSA access to communications data.
Nov 14, 2013
Commentary
How War on Terrorism Has Evolved
Special operations to capture terrorists are more dangerous than drone strikes, and nimble terrorist adversaries will develop countermeasures to make them even more difficult. But they are politically more acceptable and offer opportunities for intelligence and the visible delivery of justice.
Oct 24, 2013
Blog
Do U.S. Raids in Libya, Somalia Signal a Shift in Terror Strategy?
The raids that the United States conducted over the weekend in Libya and Somalia could signal a new focus in Washington on capturing terrorist suspects and gathering intelligence rather than relying on drone strikes. RAND experts Linda Robinson, Angel Rabasa, and Seth Jones comment.
Oct 10, 2013
Commentary
Needed: Sustainable Spying Oversight
Domestic intelligence in the United States is an activity with a history, and efforts to consider future policy on this issue need to take that history into account, writes Brian Jackson. Public acceptability must be part of the calculus in devising oversight and control of intelligence efforts.
Sep 18, 2013
Commentary
Building a More Secure American Embassy
The recent decision to close 19 U.S. embassies and consulates in the Middle East and Africa because of intelligence indicating terrorist planning for unspecific attacks underscores the need to continue focusing attention and resources on the danger al-Qaida and its affiliates pose to the United States and its allies.
Sep 5, 2013
Report
Increasing Flexibility and Agility at the National Reconnaissance Office: Lessons from Modular Design, Occupational Surprise, and Commercial Research and Development Processes
To help the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) become more flexible and agile in an increasingly uncertain world, RAND researched whether the NRO might benefit from building modular satellites and examined how professionals respond to surprise.
Aug 14, 2013