Sociological intelligence is

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. Militaries are typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with their members identifiable by a d ...

competitive intelligence Competitive intelligence (CI) is the process and forward-looking practices used in producing knowledge about the competitive environment to improve organizational performance. Competitive intelligence involves systematically collecting and anal ...

concerning the

social stratification Social stratification refers to a society's categorization of its people into groups based on socioeconomic factors like wealth, income, race, education, ethnicity, gender, occupation, social status, or derived power (social and political ...

, value systems, and

group dynamics Group dynamics is a system of behaviors and psychological processes occurring within a social group (''intra''group dynamics), or between social groups ( ''inter''group dynamics). The study of group dynamics can be useful in understanding decision ...

of a population. Sociological intelligence is useful to a military intelligence system because

sociological Sociology is the scientific study of human society that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. The term sociology was coined in ...

concepts are key to understanding a region's stability, military capability, and foreign policy. The importance of sociological intelligence has been demonstrated most prominently in recent conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, Africa, Russia, and the Middle East. The United States' failure to employ sociological intelligence assets was detrimental to dealing with revolutionary Iran, when ignorance and stereotyping of Iranian leadership as "radicals" limited U.S. understanding of the situation. In

the term is used to describe a field of sociological enquiry into potential markets or business competitors.{{Cite book , title=Competitive intelligence and global business , page=62 , publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group , year=2005 , first=David L. , last=Blenkhorn , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qV3UEo0K0zcC , isbn=0-275-98140-1, accessdate=26 April 2009

References

Military intelligence