Renseignement militaire

Le renseignement militaire en Irak fonctionne mal. Selon un haut responsable, il lui faut des ethnologues :

"the vast intelligence apparatus is unable to answer fundamental questions about the environment in which US and allied forces operate and the people they seek to persuade. Ignorant of local economics and landowners, hazy about who the powerbrokers are and how they might be influenced, incurious about the correlations between various development projects and the levels of cooperation among villagers, and disengaged from people in the best position to find answers" (…) He urges them to get out of headquarters, work with soldiers on the ground, talk to people and act more like journalists, as well as historian and librarians. Interestingly he says that 90% of intelligence work these days is what he calls "open source", and quotes a former head of intelligence saying that the job should be more Sherlock Holmes than James Bond.

A damning view of US intelligence in Afghanistan

La guerre, c’est une conduite du changement par d’autres moyens : comprendre la logique de la culture adverse permet de prévoir ses actions et d’en tirer parti.