The United Nations and the Rationale for Collective Intelligence ...

intelligence tends also to foster the widely held view that such a system is infeasible or incompatible with the UN and that intelligence can only serve the exclusive interests of states.

This book tackles the concept of collective intelligence and the debates around it head-on. Taking as its central argument the question of whether an intelligence system is both desirable and feasible within the UN structure, it explores the complex and sometimes irreconcilable issues of strategic intelligence in a sharing context. This study identifies and develops a conceptual and empirical framework for a viable intelligence capability in multiagency institutions, exploring and suggesting, for the first time, necessary and acceptable conditions for collective intelligence in an environment characterised by conflicting objectives among states and other international actors. It takes as its main premise the view that the UN and the world of intelligence are two separate worlds that contradict and conflict with each other's concepts and doctrines. From this point of view, this book attempts to harmonise these issues by exploring the many theoretical imperatives that set the two institutions apart, as well as the contexts in which they could be interfaced.

Embarking on an exercise such as this poses a number of logistical problems, among which include the extent and depth of analysis that might be required to explore the range of issues that characterise the wider argument, which primarily invites questions, such as what should be covered and what should be left out of the analysis as well as how the research question should be framed. For example, should the study be based purely on empirical evidence that necessarily speaks for itself? Should it be purely conceptual? Or, should it combine both of these issues? Even after these questions have been answered, further logistical and intellectual questions still arise. Assuming, for instance, that the chosen approach is based purely on defining the conceptual problems, the question of which concept might best explain the problem, especially when none exists in the parent subject area and the available ones are by themselves inadequate, poses a situation akin to working from a securely fitted straightjacket. Supposing also that the choice of approach is based strictly on empirical data, the question