The RIS Open Source Intelligemce Cycle

The intelligence cycle is widely known and used in intelligence studies to explain the intelligence production process, however, the cycle in its classical shape and format is not adequate anymore for the current age. The information landscape has changed drastically, source analysis has become much more important than it already was, the communication circle has changed, the phrase “analysis” is misused and most importantly of all: the concept of customer or client is non-existent in any intelligence cycle. This paper proposes a radically changed intelligence production cycle that at least for Open Source Intelligence processes works much better, where the customer is in the middle, the phrase “analysis” replaced by “synthesis”, and where the production speeds is seriously increased by replacing the cycle by a propeller.