Hybrid Threats and the Intelligence Community: Priming for a Volatile Age

A specific set of challenges facing the intelligence community in a contemporary environment is characterized by composite and dynamic hybrid threats. An understanding of the reciprocal interaction is required between the intelligence actors responsible for intelligence analysis and dissemination, and key societal actors responsible for crafting responses to hybrid threats and building societal resilience. Three processes are identified as critical for the intelligence community’s ability to proactively counter hybrid threats: intelligence analysis; aggregation and communication of intelligence; and reception and absorption of intelligence among key societal actors. The interconnections between these areas are visualized in the Intelligence Analysis Interaction Model, intending to provide a framework for understanding the dynamics of hybrid threats and their evolution over time, and the intelligence community’s interactive engagement with societal actors aiming to counter hybrid threats and build resilience. The framework contributes to improved tools for identifying and analyzing the nexus between threats and vulnerabilities, building resilience, and devising whole-of-society responses to hybrid threats.