Concerning Implications For The Intelligence Community

This paper provides two major implications the intelligence community should be most concerned with during the next twenty years. The thesis is that out of the seven key implications outlined in the “Global Trends: Paradox of Progress” report (the rich are aging, the poor are not; the global economy is shifting; technology is accelerating progress, but causing discontinuities; ideas and identities are driving a wave of exclusion; governing is getting harder; the nature of conflict is changing; and climate change, environment, and health issues will demand attention), the two most concerning are that technology is accelerating progress, but causing discontinuities, and the nature of conflict is changing. In an attempt to demonstrate this idea, the paper is broken down into four sections. The first section describes the key implication that technology is accelerating progress and what discontinuities are being caused by this development. Second, it explains the second key implication of how the nature of conflict is changing. Third, it examines why these two implications are the most important out of the seven in the trends report. Finally, the paper examines how Human Intelligence is better positioned out of the five disciplines of intelligence to deal with these two challenges.