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Basic intelligence is fundamental or factual information about a foreign country, organization or issue that is collected and produced in intelligence reports by an intelligence organization. In the U.S. Intelligence Community, the
Basic intelligence refers to reference documents that are produced by an intelligence organization about a foreign country, organization or issue by an intelligence organization. It contains information that is likely to be needed by many consumers for many purposes. Basic intelligence is one of the older intelligence types and predates the formal definition. It is encyclopedic in nature as opposed to being estimative or technical intelligence analysis. It is organized so that it can be readily used, such as country studies, wall charts of organizational structure, military capabilities, or country databases. Basic intelligence needs to be comprehensive, systematically organized, and updated periodically to account for changes. Consumers of basic intelligence include policy makers, the military and often authors of other intelligence types that require fundamental intelligence to make their assessments. Unclassified basic intelligence, such the CIA Factbook, is often used by the general public as reference material about foreign countries.
General Military Intelligence is basic intelligence of a military nature. The U.S. Department of Defense defines General Military Intelligence as: "Intelligence concerning the (1) military capabilities of foreign countries or organizations or (2) topics affecting potential US or multinational military operations, relating to the following subj: armed forces capabilities, including order of battle, organization, training, tactics, doctrine, strategy, and other factors bearing on military strength and effectiveness; area and terrain intelligence, including urban areas, coasts and landing beaches, and meteorological, oceanographic, and geological intelligence; transportation in all modes; military materiel production and support industries; military and civilian communications systems; military economics, including foreign military assistance; insurgency and terrorism; military political-sociological intelligence; location, identification, and description of military related installations; government control; escape and evasion; and threats and forecasts. (Excludes scientific and technical intelligence.)"
* CIA World Factbook
* Soviet Military Power
* Joint Army Navy Intelligence Studies (JANIS)
* National Intelligence Survey
* Modernized Integrated Database (U.S. DoD General Military Intelligence Database)
* Military Capabilities Study (MCS)
* Maps
* Wall Charts
* Graphs and tables
* Country Studies
CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
World Factbook
''The World Factbook'', also known as the ''CIA World Factbook'', is a reference resource produced by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) with almanac-style information about the countries of the world. The official print version is available ...
is the best known basic intelligence publication. The U.S. Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national secu ...
uses the term "General Military Intelligence" for military basic intelligence.
Definition and purpose
Basic intelligence refers to reference documents that are produced by an intelligence organization about a foreign country, organization or issue by an intelligence organization. It contains information that is likely to be needed by many consumers for many purposes. Basic intelligence is one of the older intelligence types and predates the formal definition. It is encyclopedic in nature as opposed to being estimative or technical intelligence analysis. It is organized so that it can be readily used, such as country studies, wall charts of organizational structure, military capabilities, or country databases. Basic intelligence needs to be comprehensive, systematically organized, and updated periodically to account for changes. Consumers of basic intelligence include policy makers, the military and often authors of other intelligence types that require fundamental intelligence to make their assessments. Unclassified basic intelligence, such the CIA Factbook, is often used by the general public as reference material about foreign countries. Classified
Classified may refer to:
General
*Classified information, material that a government body deems to be sensitive
*Classified advertising or "classifieds"
Music
*Classified (rapper) (born 1977), Canadian rapper
*The Classified, a 1980s American roc ...
basic intelligence goes beyond what is available in the unclassified information and includes information about relationships with other countries or details about military capabilities that are not available in open-source intelligence
Open-source intelligence (OSINT) is the collection and analysis of data gathered from open sources (covert and publicly available sources) to produce actionable intelligence. OSINT is primarily used in national security, law enforcement, and bus ...
.
"Basic intelligence" is also used as an adjective to describe introductory intelligence courses.
United Kingdom definition
The United Kingdom's definition of basic intelligence is: "Basic intelligence is defined as intelligence on any subject that may be used as reference material for planning and as a basis for processing subsequent information or intelligence (from Allied Administrative Publication). Basic intelligence includes details of orders of battle, equipment capabilities, personalities, infrastructure, socio-political, economic and environmental aspects. We derive basic intelligence through routine monitoring or on a contingency basis. Some UK intelligence agencies use the term ‘building-block intelligence’ when referring to basic intelligence."NATO definition
The NATO definition of basic intelligence is "Intelligence, derived from any source, that may be used as reference material for planning and as a basis for processing subsequent information or intelligence."U.S. DoD definition
General Military Intelligence is basic intelligence of a military nature. The U.S. Department of Defense defines General Military Intelligence as: "Intelligence concerning the (1) military capabilities of foreign countries or organizations or (2) topics affecting potential US or multinational military operations, relating to the following subj: armed forces capabilities, including order of battle, organization, training, tactics, doctrine, strategy, and other factors bearing on military strength and effectiveness; area and terrain intelligence, including urban areas, coasts and landing beaches, and meteorological, oceanographic, and geological intelligence; transportation in all modes; military materiel production and support industries; military and civilian communications systems; military economics, including foreign military assistance; insurgency and terrorism; military political-sociological intelligence; location, identification, and description of military related installations; government control; escape and evasion; and threats and forecasts. (Excludes scientific and technical intelligence.)"
Examples
* CIA World Factbook
* Soviet Military Power
* Joint Army Navy Intelligence Studies (JANIS)
* National Intelligence Survey
* Modernized Integrated Database (U.S. DoD General Military Intelligence Database)
* Military Capabilities Study (MCS)
* Maps
* Wall Charts
* Graphs and tables
* Country Studies
Other types of intelligence
Other types of intelligence analysis include current intelligence, estimative intelligence,scientific and technical intelligence
Technical Intelligence (TECHINT) is intelligence about weapons and equipment used by the armed forces of foreign nations. The related term, scientific and technical intelligence, addresses information collected or analyzed about the broad rang ...
, counterintelligence
Counterintelligence is an activity aimed at protecting an agency's intelligence program from an opposition's intelligence service. It includes gathering information and conducting activities to prevent espionage, sabotage, assassinations or o ...
, biographic intelligence, medical intelligence Medical Intelligence is defined by the Department of Defense as:
That category of intelligence resulting from collection, evaluation, analysis, and interpretation of foreign medical, bio-scientific, and environmental information that is of interes ...
, domestic intelligence, and economic intelligence.
References
{{Intelligence cycle management Intelligence assessment