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Intelligence Agencies
An intelligence agency is a government agency responsible for the collection, analysis, and exploitation of information in support of law enforcement, national security, military, public safety, and foreign policy objectives. Means of information gathering are both overt and covert and may include espionage, communication interception, cryptanalysis, cooperation with other institutions, and evaluation of public sources. The assembly and propagation of this information is known as intelligence analysis or intelligence assessment. Intelligence agencies can provide the following services for their national governments. * Give early warning of impending crisis; * Serve national and international crisis management by helping to discern the intentions of current or potential opponents; * Inform national defense planning and military operations (military intelligence); * Protect sensitive information secrets, both of their own sources and activities, and those of other state agencie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Interest
The national interest is a sovereign state's goals and ambitions (economic, military, cultural, or otherwise), taken to be the aim of government. Etymology The Italian phrase ''ragione degli stati'' was first used by Giovanni della Casa around the year 1547. The expression "reason of state" (''Ragion di Stato'') was championed by Italian diplomat and political thinker Niccolò Machiavelli, and was later popularised by Italian political thinker Giovanni Botero around 1580s,. Prominently, Chief Minister Cardinal Richelieu justified France's intervention on the Protestant side, despite its own Catholicism, in the Thirty Years' War as being in the national interest in order to block the increasing power of the Catholic Holy Roman Emperor. At Richelieu's prompting, Jean de Silhon defended the concept of ''raison d'État'' as "a mean between what conscience permits and affairs require."Thuau, E. 1996. ''Raison d'État et Pensée Politique a l'époque de Richelieu.'' Paris: Armand C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
