Sociocultural intelligence : a new discipline in intelligence studies

Intelligence is a discipline that is crucially needed and depended upon for insights on threats to National Security. Today, the United States benefits from superior technological advancements to improve intelligence collection and analysis requirements. We can track conventional movements across the globe with ease. Intercepting communications among our adversaries has never been so simple. Our abilities to formulate decisions based on such advancements have become second nature. With such advanced systems, an individual with interest must wonder why then the war in Afghanistan con tinues. Some would claim that the United States has and will continue to fail in its attempts to defeat unconventional and asymmetric threats, not just in Afghanistan but globally due to technological dependency.

Our failures exist due to many reasons, and reliance on technological advancements of intelligence related instruments is one of them. Many would say that we have not failed at all, but with a war going on for over eight years in Afghanistan, arguments can be made otherwise. Eight years into such a war with no sign of victory in the future and the expenditures of billions of dol lars along with the continued loss of American and coalition lives-this war should have been over long ago. Mistakes have been made and will continue to be made. These mistakes will impair our successes. They can be prevented, partially, though through the incorporation of a very old yet unofficial tool. That tool is called Sociocultural Intelligence (SOCINT).

Currently, this intelligence discipline does not officially exist because those in leadership positions fail to respect and value the components, funda mentals, and results that can exist through the incorporation of such an intel ligence discipline. Maybe they do understand the need and importance, but maybe they have just become so overwhelmed by the unnecessary demands of numbers showing how many High Valued Targets (HVT's) have been killed or captured. Either way, a new intelligence discipline that focuses on social and cultural principles throughout areas of concern is needed.