Understanding Non-Western Cultures: A Strategic Intelligence Perspective.

With the containment of the Soviet threat, there has been a resurgence of ethnic consciousness and cultural values throughout the non-Western world. Given that non-Western societies comprise two-thirds of the worlds population, their cultural perspectives will define conflict and instability in the Twenty-First Century. In the new world order, culture divergence promises to be the major challenge to United States intelligence. Therefore, the Intelligence Community must reassess its Cold War paradigm relative to a multi-polar world of smaller, but no less lethal threats. The effectiveness of technology based collection systems, designed for the conventional battlespace, will be challenged by adversaries from different cultures with irregular and asymmetrical views of conflict. At the same time, a more transparent cultural divide between the West and non-West will require a greater emphasis on analyzing potential adversaries actions and intentions. Therefore, a new culturally based intelligence paradigm will be required. This paper examines the nature of this change and suggests an approach to defining a new intelligence paradigm.