Executive Summary:
- Economic or business intelligence refers to the collection, analysis, and use of information about economic activities, trends, and entities to support decision-making, protect national or corporate interests, and gain a strategic advantage.
- Global threats like threat finance, terror funding, the narcotics trade and human trafficking endanger national security and only further justify the need for competitive, reliable economic intelligence.
- The US intelligence community remains vigilant against countries like China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea in their attempts to penetrate US companies, industries and R&D establishments.
Situation Report (SITREP):
Economic or business intelligence refers to the collection, analysis, and use of information about economic activities, trends, and entities to support decision-making, protect national or corporate interests, and gain a strategic advantage. It’s the process of gathering and interpreting economic data to make smarter business or policy choices. Economic intelligence isn’t just a tool of financial advisors and traders, governments, corporations, intelligence agencies, and investors and analysts all look for trends and indicators to forecast economic activity. The United States’ Central Intelligence Agency has a powerful Economic Intelligence Division. The US’ Federal Bureau of Investigation looks into intellectual property theft and corporate espionage. India maintains its National Investigation Agency (NIA) and Enforcement Directorate besides the existing Economic Offences Wing of the Central Bureau of Investigation.
As with so many operations and initiatives borne of the national security community, the successes of economic intelligence forecasts largely go unnoticed, however; the failures of the discipline are infamous and widely known. The withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan—driven largely by the unpredicted collapse of the Soviet economy—set in motion the disintegration of the USSR and ultimately brought the Cold War to an end in 1991. This turning point ushered in an era of proxy wars and covert operations, many of which were aimed at undermining the economic stability of target nations. These tactics reflected a new strategic doctrine: national security could no longer be separated from economic security.
After the CIA’s overestimation of the Soviet economy, in the period that followed the end of the Cold War, the US government gave added importance to economic intelligence due to a general belief that future threats to national security could be more economic than military and that economic dominance rather than mere military superiority would be a major objective of state policy.
Most recently, global threats like threat finance, terror funding, the narcotics trade and human trafficking endanger national security and only further justify the need for competitive, reliable economic intelligence. Additionally, The US intelligence community remains vigilant against countries like China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea in their attempts to penetrate US companies, industries and R&D establishments.
Impact Analysis and Recommended Action:
Today, Intelligence agencies have to be cognizant and capable in data analytics as this is becoming an important source of information about futuristic trends in both geopolitics and the world economy. Artificial Intelligence is giving a new capability to data analytics-AI applications in the domains of Intelligence and Security, which are unfolding themselves fast. For intelligence agencies across the globe, the mission has been significantly enlarged with economic intelligence getting added to collection interests in a holistic and comprehensive way. Consider contacting RMS International’s Intelligence Services at ask@rmsiusa.com to develop a customized and resilient economic intelligence apparatus and bespoke, customized threat assessments to forecast risk and learn how to protect your organization, assets, personnel, operations and reputation.
About RMS International:
Founded in 2012, RMS International provides ad hoc and contracted close protection, estate security, international travel management, corporate executive protection, personnel and asset security, and discreet investigative services. Operating a state-of-the-art Risk Operations Center in West Palm Beach, they provide 24/7 overwatch of global operations in Asia, Europe, Africa and throughout the Americas. RMS International delivers peace of mind in a chaotic world. Connect with us at RMSIUSA.com
