Midterm Project

• A car struck a prominent Russian opposition leader while she was crossing a busy London street.  Who is responsible?
  
• China is developing a new all-weather stealth combat aircraft. To what extent has its performance, design, and capability been a result of espionage against the United States?
• The US is considering dramatically expanding anti-Russian propaganda operations in the Ukraine and Eastern/Central Europe. How is Vladimir Putin likely to respond?
  
• The US is considering a covert operation to destabilize the government of Venezuela with the hopes this would provoke the downfall of the current regime. What are the risks to such an operation and what might be the unintended consequences of such an operation?

Your submission should be in table form and not exceed two pages per intelligence problem. Each table should list the primary intelligence problem (above). In your table, you must break down the primary problem into components, then listing Priority Intelligence Requirements (PIRs) / Essential Elements of Information (EEIs) for each component question. PIRs may be considered “general statements of intelligence need” or generalized questions about the operating environment. The PIRs should then be the driving force for your more specific EEIs. You should identify the analytic methods you would recommend using to analyze the information to answer the overall question. Finally, you need to explain why those methods are appropriate.

1. No one method can stand alone as an adequate method. It takes looking at the problem from more than one approach to get a meaningful view of the solution to the problem. You should list the methods that you would recommend and in a few words identify what the method would achieve. (You may choose whatever format you think works best to communicate these ideas.) Further, the questions below are broad and general. If you need to make assumptions to help you address each problem please document your assumptions (this is more important than you may at first think).
2. Feel free to draw on any method you are aware of and if you have questions on this please reach out, that’s what I’m here for. If you are concerned that I may not recognize your method, please provide a footnote explaining.
3. It is not possible to list all PIRs/EEIs so it is impossible to be complete given the time available for this assignment. However, I will evaluate your selection of component intelligence questions, intelligence requirements, and the centrality of the methods you recommend in addressing the core nature of the problem.
4. Be sure that it is clear which methods address which subproblems.