Failure to adapt; Intelligence Failure and Military Failure as Functions of Strategic Failure?
type: CreativeWork
description: The following paper looks at intelligence failures and military failures through the lens of adaptation failure. This paper asserts that there is reason to believe that certain causal elements of alleged intelligence failures reside more so in the province of politics, than in the collection and analysis domain of intelligence tradecraft. This is not to say that failures are exclusively of a political nature, but that looking at politics and the relationship of policymakers to the Intelligence Community yields a preponderance of causal evidence. Secondly, it is suggested that a parallel set of underlying assumptions evident in adaptation failure theory may be observed in military failures as well. This leads to the final analysis, which tends to suggest that it is anything but final and therefore may be indicative of a superordinate realm: strategic failure.
abstract: The following paper looks at intelligence failures and military failures through the lens of adaptation failure. This paper asserts that there is reason to believe that certain causal elements of alleged intelligence failures reside more so in the province of politics, than in the collection and analysis domain of intelligence tradecraft. This is not to say that failures are exclusively of a political nature, but that looking at politics and the relationship of policymakers to the Intelligence Community yields a preponderance of causal evidence. Secondly, it is suggested that a parallel set of underlying assumptions evident in adaptation failure theory may be observed in military failures as well. This leads to the final analysis, which tends to suggest that it is anything but final and therefore may be indicative of a superordinate realm: strategic failure.
author: Firester, David
keywords: International Relations
date published: 2011-01-01T08:00:00Z
date modified: 2026-07-24T01:56:34Z
provider: City University of New York - City College
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: City University of New York - City College