Editing Espionage (section)

== The problem of defining intelligence and espionage ==
{{See also|Intelligence studies}}The ''original'' definition of intelligence (in English) was as to be synonymous with [[journalism]] and [[news]], and has morphed and transformed into whatever uses it has today.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Breakspear |first=Alan |date=2013-10-01 |title=A New Definition of Intelligence |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02684527.2012.699285 |journal=Intelligence and National Security |volume=28 |issue=5 |pages=678–693 |doi=10.1080/02684527.2012.699285 |issn=0268-4527}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Troy |first=Thomas F. |date=1991-12-01 |title=The "correct" definition of intelligence |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08850609108435193 |journal=International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence |volume=5 |issue=4 |pages=433–454 |doi=10.1080/08850609108435193 |issn=0885-0607}}</ref>
{{Poem quote|text="Here it is up front: intelligence is, with thanks to Constantine FitzGibbon, knowledge of the enemy. No sooner is it written than the readers' rejoinders flash in the mind, form on the lips, strike the air: No, it's wrong, inadequate, misleading, or impolitic; or, So, what else is new?

Rest assured, dear rejoinder-ers, that these objections will be handled long before the last page is reached... so many of those intelligencers who have tried to define intelligence have grievously botched the job. Finally, unless intelligence is properly understood, the country's intelligence agencies, faced with changing targets and priorities, may lose sight of their proper task."|sign=Thomas F. Troy|title=The "Correct" Definition of Intelligence}}
That modern definition of intelligence as "knowledge of the enemy" is considered problematic.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Pili |first=Giangiuseppe |date=2019-05-04 |title=Toward a Philosophical Definition of Intelligence |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23800992.2019.1649113?scroll=top&needAccess=true |journal=The International Journal of Intelligence, Security, and Public Affairs |volume=21 |issue=2 |pages=162–190 |doi=10.1080/23800992.2019.1649113 |issn=2380-0992}}</ref> Scholars argue that it does not include any sort of inclusion of who gathers intelligence and for what purpose.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Falode |first=Adewunmi |date=2021 |title=FOUND: A DEFINITION OF INTELLIGENCE |url=https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=1225445 |journal=Journal of Social Sciences |language=English |volume=IV |issue=1 |pages=70–73 |issn=2587-3490}}</ref> Can police detectives, inspectors, or federal agents be considered as gathering intelligence? In which case, what is the difference between a spy and a detective?<ref>{{Cite book |last=Diderichsen |first=Adam |title=Intelligence on the Frontier Between State and Civil Society |date=2020 |chapter=Spreading intelligence |chapter-url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.1201/9781003009771-8/spreading-intelligence-adam-diderichsen |website=Routledge|pages=99–110 |doi=10.1201/9781003009771-8 |isbn=978-1-003-00977-1 }}</ref> Who is the enemy?<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Scheffler |first1=Alessandro |last2=Dietrich |first2=Jan-Hendrik |date=2023-10-02 |title=Military Intelligence: Ill-Defined and Understudied |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08850607.2023.2187190 |journal=International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence |volume=36 |issue=4 |pages=1047–1066 |doi=10.1080/08850607.2023.2187190 |issn=0885-0607}}</ref>
{{Poem quote|text="The debate within [[Intelligence studies]] over its central conceptual term is by no means a discipline-specific problem. [[International security]] experts have debated the term “[[terrorism]]” ad nauseam, while [[biologists]] have been at war over the term “[[species]]” for over two centuries. In contrast to these parallel debates over the respective essences of “terrorism” or “species”, scholars of intelligence add that intelligence is under-theorized. In short, they posit the following: if we think harder we could get a better, more functional, definition of intelligence."|sign=Jules J.S. Gaspard|source=|title=Intelligence without Essence: Rejecting the Classical Theory of Definition}}
For centuries, there has been no single definition of intelligence, nor indeed espionage.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gaspard |first=Jules J.S. |date=2017-07-03 |title=Intelligence without Essence: Rejecting the Classical Theory of Definition |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08850607.2017.1263527 |journal=International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence |volume=30 |issue=3 |pages=557–582 |doi=10.1080/08850607.2017.1263527 |issn=0885-0607}}</ref> The definition depends on the [[scholar]], the practitioner, the [[government]], the [[Citizenship|citizen]], or any of the other [[Stakeholder analysis|stakeholders]] who might be making remarks upon the practices of spies or [[Intelligence agency|intelligence agencies]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Baron |first=Frederick |date=March 28, 2024 |title=Why Define Intelligence? |url=https://www.ni-u.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Why-Define-Intelligence.pdf |website=National Intelligence University}}</ref> Some scholars have written that the definition of intelligence is confused by the fact that intelligence agencies today are engaged in many more activities than intelligence gathering,<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Vrist Rønn |first1=Kira |last2=Høffding |first2=Simon |date=2013-10-01 |title=The Epistemic Status of Intelligence: An Epistemological Contribution to the Understanding of Intelligence |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02684527.2012.701438 |journal=Intelligence and National Security |volume=28 |issue=5 |pages=694–716 |doi=10.1080/02684527.2012.701438 |issn=0268-4527}}</ref> and ask whether [[Sabotage]], [[Deception]], [[Counterintelligence]], [[Analysis]], [[Financial intelligence]], [[Propaganda]], and even [[Assassination]] might be considered all forms of espionage. Is intelligence a product, or process?<ref>{{Cite web |last=Bimfort |first=Martin T. |date=September 18, 1995 |title=A Definition of Intelligence |url=https://www.cia.gov/resources/csi/static/A-Definition-Of-Intelligence.pdf |website=CIA Reading Room}}</ref>
{{Poem quote|text="Formulating a brief definition of so broad a term as intelligence is like making a [[microscopic]] [[portrait]] of a [[continent]], and the product of this effort is likely to have less value than the process of arriving at it, the reexamination of our own thinking as we seek to pinpoint the essentials of the concept."|sign=Martin T. Bimfort|source=A Definition of Intelligence}}[[File:Wolkowski-Craucher.jpg|thumb|Madame [[Minna Craucher]] (''right''), a Finnish [[socialite]] and spy, with her chauffeur Boris Wolkowski (''left'') in 1930s]]Scholars have also been eager to point out that the United States Intelligence Community does not own the definition of intelligence, nor espionage.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Stout |first1=Mark |last2=Warner |first2=Michael |date=2019 |title=Developing Intelligence Theory: Intelligence is as intelligence does |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780429028830-6/intelligence-intelligence-mark-stout-michael-warner |website=Taylor and Francis|doi=10.4324/9780429028830-6 }}</ref>
{{Poem quote|text="Indeed, even today, we have no accepted definition of intelligence. The term is defined anew by each author who addresses it, and these definitions rarely refer to one another or build off what has been written before. Without a clear idea of what intelligence is, how can we develop a theory to explain how it works?

...For producers of intelligence, however, the equation "intelligence = information" is too vague to provide real guidance in their work. To professionals in the field, mere data is not intelligence; thus these definitions are incomplete. Think of how many names are in the telephone book, and how few of those names anyone ever seeks. It is what people do with data and information that gives them the special quality that we casually call "intelligence.""|sign=Michael Warner|title=Wanted: A Definition of "Intelligence": Understanding Our Craft}}