Glossary of terms used in the study of military intelligence, collection disciplines, and adversarial epistemology.
Collection disciplines
- HUMINT — human intelligence (agents, interrogation, liaison, debriefing)
- SIGINT — signals intelligence (COMINT + ELINT)
- IMINT — imagery intelligence (satellite, aerial, UAS)
- GEOINT — geospatial intelligence (imagery + geospatial data)
- MASINT — measurement and signature intelligence (physical phenomena)
- OSINT — open-source intelligence
- TECHINT — technical intelligence (materiel exploitation, DOMEX)
- Cyber intelligence — cyber threat intelligence and computer network exploitation
- Reconnaissance — ISR, tactical collection methods
Analytical tradecraft
- All-source analysis — integration of all collection disciplines
- Analysis of competing hypotheses — Heuer’s structured technique
- Key assumptions check — surfacing hidden assumptions
- Red-teaming — adversary perspective and alternative analysis
- Estimative intelligence — probabilistic assessment for policymakers
- Estimative language — standardized probabilistic vocabulary
- Finished intelligence — processed analytical products (PDB, NIEs)
- National Intelligence Estimate — community-wide consensus assessment
- Source reliability — evaluating source credibility and access
- Mirror-imaging — projecting one’s own logic onto the adversary
- Groupthink — consensus-seeking that suppresses dissent
- Politicization — distortion of assessment by policy pressure
- Signal-to-noise — Wohlstetter’s foundational analytical problem
- Stovepiping — organizational barriers to information sharing
- Attribution — identifying the responsible actor
Military intelligence
- Order of battle — adversary composition, disposition, strength
- Intelligence preparation — IPB/IPOE
- Collection management — tasking collection assets against requirements
- Targeting — intelligence support to engagement decisions
- Battle damage assessment — post-engagement evaluation
- Center of gravity — Clausewitzian source of adversary power
- High-value target — targets whose loss degrades adversary capability
- Pattern of life — behavioral signature analysis for targeting
- Indicator — observable actions that confirm or deny adversary courses of action
- Indications and warning — detecting adversary preparations for hostile action
- Warning intelligence — the warning function as analytical discipline
- Force protection intelligence — threat assessment for friendly forces
- Sensitive site exploitation — intelligence from physical sites
- Information operations — influence and information warfare
- Decapitation strike — targeting leadership as center of gravity
- PMESII-PT — operational variables for describing the environment
- Essential elements of information — the bridge between PIRs and indicators
- Intelligence synchronization — coordinating intel with the operational timeline
- Intelligence reach — accessing national/theater intelligence from forward positions
- Rules of engagement — legal constraints and the intelligence they require
Operational tradecraft
- Asset recruitment — recruiting human intelligence sources
- Counterintelligence — detecting and neutralizing adversary intelligence
- Double agent — controlled adversary agents
- Denial and deception — concealing truth and conveying falsehoods
- Covert action — using intelligence to change the world
- Liaison — intelligence-sharing between services
- Operational security — controlling what the adversary learns
- Need-to-know — access restriction for source protection
- Intelligence oversight — democratic accountability for secret activities
- loss — exploitation vs. source protection tradeoff
- Wilderness of mirrors — the recursive counterintelligence condition
2026 Iran war terms
- IRGC — Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps