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Peace, UN intelligence capability would aim to fulfil a range of prescribed tasks, amongst which would be the following:7
- a. Early warning based information gathering and informal or formal fact-finding
- b. Preventive steps based on timely and accurate knowledge of facts
- c. Understanding of developments and global trends based on sound analysis
- d. The need to integrate intelligence assets into the UN decision process in forecasting and conflict prevention
Subsequent UN documents, such as the Brahimi report and the Lessons Learned reports, also reveal a range of roles that, strictly speaking, are not different from those performed by state intelligence. Functions such as deploying intelligence assets for conflict management, peacekeeping and logistics, as well as training and informing field operatives, are acknowledged. It is then not a coincidence that these roles share similar characteristics with those employed by state intelligence. A baseline definition for these tasks can be summed up by the statement of Maurice-Henry May: ‘Knowledge and analysis designed to assist action and the task of intelligence as prognosis to warning and estimate of future events’.8 In part, this will serve as a working definition in the present study. By adopting this definition, attention is drawn to the distinction between the processes of informed decision making through the systematic use of intelligence assets on the one hand, and the more familiar subversive, covert, or rogue operations associated with state intelligence organisations on the other hand.
Preliminary Assumptions About Collective Intelligence
It will be reasonable to describe any manner of UN intelligence capability as a system of collective intelligence. This expression has a pivotal role within the context of institutions of collective endeavour. In such environments, the idea of collective intelligence surpasses the general