INTELLIGENCE TRADECRAFT IN THE AGE OF DIGITAL WILDFIRES

This paper argues that the advent of a new phenomenon of “digital wildfires” will generate changes within the intelligence tradecraft on par with the paradigmatic shifts of 9/11 or the economic crisis of 2008, albeit in a subtler, more insidious way. Moreover, Big Data, as a promise of intelligence analysis done automatically, without the need of a theoretical background, is not a panacea ? now, more than ever, there is a need for a new breed of intelligence analysts that can bridge social science expertise with a tradecraft that relies more and more on technology