Objective:
The course objective is to enable students to apply and combine critical thinking and structured analytic methods against real intelligence problems. The skills and methods taught in this course enable students to organize and analyze mostly non-quantitative data to produce analytic hypotheses.
Learning Outcomes:
- utilize critical thinking techniques to structure their analytic reasoning, arguments, and hypotheses
- define an intelligence question using critical thinking techniques
- create an analytic strategy for analyzing an intelligence need or question
- analyze intelligence associated data, information, and evidence
- complete a final class assignment to combine and apply critical thinking and structured analytic methods against a real intelligence problem
General Course Topics:
- Universal elements of thought model of critical thinking
- Bias and mindsets
- Role of questions
- Inferences and assumptions
- Divergent and convergent thinking
- Problem restatement
- Hypothesis generation
- Introduction to structured analytic techniques
- Indicators
- Deception
- Analysis of competing hypotheses
- Pro's, con's, and fixes
- Adversary intent matrix
- Scenario/decision trees
- Alternative futures-scenario planning
- Devil's advocacy-contrarian techniques