The Intelligence Community

Paper Summary:

This paper explains the complexity of ethical dilemmas that intelligence personnel face in their line of work. On the one hand, their main job responsibility is protection of the homeland, but on the other, their hearts and minds are often entangled in serious ethical considerations, which stand in conflict with their professional responsibilities. The author points out that ethics is deeply embedded in the national psyche and has a profound impact on intelligence community, too; some ethical standard is certainly present in intelligence work, but the extent to which this ethical standard is followed by the personnel, varies. The paper stresses that the intelligence community has now attained technological capabilities, which give them immense powers; therefore, it is important that these powers are not misused and, for this reason, there is a need to established ethical boundaries, which encourage intelligence personnel to work with integrity.

From the Paper:

"It is commonly assumed that intelligence community and its activities are designed to ignore larger ethical concerns to ruthlessly pursue the goal of national security. This notion is heavily supported by evidence that clearly indicates that homeland security is always the chief concern and the route to reach the destination is devoid of ethical considerations. However a closer analysis of the history of intelligence community reveals that there have been instances of dissent when people operating from their own ethical paradigm went against their superiors. This was done not to harm national security but to precisely and solely attack the route designed to accomplish this goal."

More papers on The Intelligence Community:

• Analytical Essay # 134631 : "Challenges Facing the Intelligence Community"
• Persuasive Essay # 149645 : "The Intelligence Community: A History of Reactionary Reform"
• Essay # 4619 : "Managing the American Intelligence Community"

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