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These issues are central to the search for a concept of collective intelligence but are by no means exhaustive.2 Other combinations are possible, and no categorical answers can provide an immediate solution. Explaining concepts such as those brought up by these questions and their possible implications for managing international conflicts within the UN system necessarily calls for the kind of analytical narrative that explores many of the contexts, including instances in which intelligence is employed in collective security as well as the various theoretical barriers that have distracted from and undermined scholarly thinking in this field. This then calls for an approach that aims to develop a plausible concept that provides an alternative explanation to facilitate the advancement of an intelligence system that is suited for a complex collective decision environment, such as that presented by the UN system.
Desirability and Feasibility
The key question, and perhaps one that needs further emphasis, is whether the UN necessarily must have an intelligence capability and whether such a system is compatible with the character of the UN. This question points to an issue of complementarity between two distant and contradictory phenomena: that is, a theoretically impartial UN system and strategic intelligence designed to serve the selfish interests of states. Complementarity then assumes a need as well as the context in which these concepts can be interfaced. As a first step towards the exploration of this subject, it is possible to suggest that there is a relationship between desirability and feasibility in both the utility of intelligence to the UN and the need to develop a plausible concept of its structure. Comparable studies of information sharing in competitive (market) models suggest likewise. For example, Hurwicz observed, first that the notion of desirability of a project can be discerned if there is a demand for such a product and if the complementarity of the concept is the only ‘troublesome’ aspect of the exercise.3 On the notion of feasibility, it will be possible to find, within the rules of the UN system or other complex organisations of its kind, aspects of the rules that allow for the