The Ross Writ
Published by Joe Edelheit RossTuesday, July 27, 2004
Diversity & The Intelligence Community
A key finding of the 9/11 Commission’s report was that overall, the Intelligence Community lacked creativity and imagination in forming their predictive conclusions regarding the terrorist threat facing the US. The commission further concluded that analysts were subject to groupthink – in essence, rather than challenge assumptions regarding the data presented to them, they collectively held many assumptions to be absolute truths, the ultimate result being flawed intelligence assessments.
As pundits across the country scrambled to assess the commission’s findings, Mr. Charles Hill of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University submitted an opinion piece to the Wall Street Journal, which stands in stark contrast to many other assessments that have been published to date. Mr. Hill makes the startling claim that a primary reason for the deterioration in quality of the nation’s intelligence product is the result of diversity programs, causing a decline in the caliber of personnel within the community.
While Mr. Hill quickly concedes that diversity has “brought plenty of smart and able people into the profession”; he then claims that they are simply not qualified because they do not possess the superior academic training gained from attendance at the nation’s elite academic institutions. As such, Mr. Hill has confused two very different variables - the problems existing within the Intelligence Community are not caused by diversity programs that afford more of the nation’s citizens equal opportunity to work within the community, but rather his assertion speaks to the decline of the nation’s education system.
Indeed, it is true that the elite academic institutions more aggressively promote critical thinking skills by forcing students to read, analyze, and write responses to scholarly works, and that the not-so-elite schools, on average, have a tendency to rely on rote methods of education. Further, this phenomenon is more the result of accountability criteria that require students to perform on standardized tests, and that preparatory courses for these tests focus on teaching students to master the system, rather than the information for which knowledge and skill is purportedly being evaluated. The implication for critical analysis skills is obvious – students are not taught to challenge information or assumptions before them, and rote education generates graduates that are more inclined to accept and agree with commonly held beliefs – a precursor to groupthink.
Diversity programs, on the other hand, work to populate the workforce with peoples of different cultures, backgrounds, and life experiences, resulting in different interpretations of constant data points. This would naturally lead to more aggressive debate and challenge - an approach that would actually produce better, more creative, and more imaginative intelligence products than a homogenous workforce ever could.
Moreover, inherent in our society is an arrogance regarding our positioning in the world; we assume that the rest of the world must “rise” to meet societal standards that exist within the US. Analyses that begin with cultural arrogance are not only built from false premises, but they are doomed to result in faulty conclusions. The homogenous workforce that Mr. Hill is promoting as a solution to many of the problems within the Intelligence Community would not alter the Western-oriented filter through which many analysts view events. Rather, lack of exposure to different peoples from different backgrounds portends badly for the community’s ability to accurately interpret data obtained from other societies and cultures, and would further limit its ability to render probable explanations regarding the motivation and actions of our enemies. Finally, Mr. Hill’s opinion only serves to support the preceding argument – despite his impressive academic credentials, his analysis is seemingly lacking in creativity and imagination - his resistance to diversity is a possible explanation for why.
*Note - I tried to find a link to Mr. Hill's op-ed, "Commissionism" from Friday the 23rd to attach; unfortunately, it is only available online to WSJ subscribers.
As pundits across the country scrambled to assess the commission’s findings, Mr. Charles Hill of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University submitted an opinion piece to the Wall Street Journal, which stands in stark contrast to many other assessments that have been published to date. Mr. Hill makes the startling claim that a primary reason for the deterioration in quality of the nation’s intelligence product is the result of diversity programs, causing a decline in the caliber of personnel within the community.
While Mr. Hill quickly concedes that diversity has “brought plenty of smart and able people into the profession”; he then claims that they are simply not qualified because they do not possess the superior academic training gained from attendance at the nation’s elite academic institutions. As such, Mr. Hill has confused two very different variables - the problems existing within the Intelligence Community are not caused by diversity programs that afford more of the nation’s citizens equal opportunity to work within the community, but rather his assertion speaks to the decline of the nation’s education system.
Indeed, it is true that the elite academic institutions more aggressively promote critical thinking skills by forcing students to read, analyze, and write responses to scholarly works, and that the not-so-elite schools, on average, have a tendency to rely on rote methods of education. Further, this phenomenon is more the result of accountability criteria that require students to perform on standardized tests, and that preparatory courses for these tests focus on teaching students to master the system, rather than the information for which knowledge and skill is purportedly being evaluated. The implication for critical analysis skills is obvious – students are not taught to challenge information or assumptions before them, and rote education generates graduates that are more inclined to accept and agree with commonly held beliefs – a precursor to groupthink.
Diversity programs, on the other hand, work to populate the workforce with peoples of different cultures, backgrounds, and life experiences, resulting in different interpretations of constant data points. This would naturally lead to more aggressive debate and challenge - an approach that would actually produce better, more creative, and more imaginative intelligence products than a homogenous workforce ever could.
Moreover, inherent in our society is an arrogance regarding our positioning in the world; we assume that the rest of the world must “rise” to meet societal standards that exist within the US. Analyses that begin with cultural arrogance are not only built from false premises, but they are doomed to result in faulty conclusions. The homogenous workforce that Mr. Hill is promoting as a solution to many of the problems within the Intelligence Community would not alter the Western-oriented filter through which many analysts view events. Rather, lack of exposure to different peoples from different backgrounds portends badly for the community’s ability to accurately interpret data obtained from other societies and cultures, and would further limit its ability to render probable explanations regarding the motivation and actions of our enemies. Finally, Mr. Hill’s opinion only serves to support the preceding argument – despite his impressive academic credentials, his analysis is seemingly lacking in creativity and imagination - his resistance to diversity is a possible explanation for why.
*Note - I tried to find a link to Mr. Hill's op-ed, "Commissionism" from Friday the 23rd to attach; unfortunately, it is only available online to WSJ subscribers.
Comments:
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Michelle
Welcome aboard. I hope you don't take our silence as indifference. Things have been a bit crazy for all of us on the non-political front but we appreciate your analysis. I think that your criticism cuts across many fields, not just intelligence. The best course I took in law school was American Legal History, which I think prepared me for the rest of the courses I took because it gave them some context as to why the law developed the way it did. It amazes me how many of my former and current colleagues at an Ivy League law school and at a top NYC firm have no sense of why the law is the way it is. Not that it is so important for negotiating mergers, but it is critical for being an enlightened citizen. Not to sound like Lewis Lapham, but I think as teachers teach to standardized tests that test math and base reading comprehension/language skills and devalue civics, history and literature, the schools turn out partially-formed citizens who are ripe for the picking of marketers and sloganeers.
FID
Welcome aboard. I hope you don't take our silence as indifference. Things have been a bit crazy for all of us on the non-political front but we appreciate your analysis. I think that your criticism cuts across many fields, not just intelligence. The best course I took in law school was American Legal History, which I think prepared me for the rest of the courses I took because it gave them some context as to why the law developed the way it did. It amazes me how many of my former and current colleagues at an Ivy League law school and at a top NYC firm have no sense of why the law is the way it is. Not that it is so important for negotiating mergers, but it is critical for being an enlightened citizen. Not to sound like Lewis Lapham, but I think as teachers teach to standardized tests that test math and base reading comprehension/language skills and devalue civics, history and literature, the schools turn out partially-formed citizens who are ripe for the picking of marketers and sloganeers.
FID
really good one, but i would stick more with updating and fresh data. this will help a lot to play.
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