The Role of Rhetorical Theory in Military Intelligence Analysis: A Soldier’s Guide to Rhetorical Theory by Maj Gary H. Mills is another in an Air University Press series of substantive essays considered too short for publication as monographs but too lengthy to be journal articles. The purpose of The Role of Rhetorical Theory in Military Intelligence Analysis is to share Major Mills’s rhetorical understanding with young officers attending initial intelligence training. Throughout he infuses key elements from the rhetorical discourse community into the discourse community that deals with training in military intelligence. Major Mills notes that his target audience is...

As intelligence specialists, the exterior world—more than 260 countries, geographic regions, and their associated political and military challenges—will test your ability to organize, process, and analyze vast amounts of information.¹ You have joined a skilled community responsible for the tireless analysis of potential and active threats against the United States. Fleet Adm Ernest King, USN, retired, effectively voiced the demanding requirements and standards for the modern intelligence specialist: “Institute rigorous, continuous examination of enemy capabilities and potentialities, thereby getting the utmost value of information of the enemy and enabling our forces to be used with the greatest effectiveness....

As an integral part of the military’s new information age, you need to be aware of alternative sources available to enhance your communication and analytical skills. Recently retitled as intelligence operators, intelligence personnel must apply every available tool in order to support worldwide warfighter operations. As highlighted by the CIA Directorate of Intelligence, your effective use of “outside experts will yield useful information and insight, along with constructive challenges to [your] working assumptions, that can only sharpen [your] analysis.”¹ In this study, Foucault’s discourse theories serve as the primary rhetorical workshop. As a result, there is a need to define...

Before pressing forward with Foucault’s rhetorical theories, I will review basic military intelligence pedagogy to highlight the key process that serves as a rhetorical road map. According to Joint Publication (JP) 2-01, Joint Intelligence Support to Military Operations, the intelligence cycle is the “process by which information is converted into intelligence and made available to users.”¹

As evidenced by the joint (Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines) document on the subject, the cycle is well ingrained into each military service. It forms a fundamental bond among 13 national-level and service-level intelligence agencies (fig. 2).²

The intelligence cycle begins with the...

Paul-Michel Foucault—a prominent philosopher, historian, and rhetorician—was born in Poitiers, France, in 1926.¹ School was an exciting aspect of Foucault’s life from a young age, and he excelled rapidly through the French school system.² While in his teens, Foucault experienced the toils of war as his town fell under control of German occupation forces during World War II.³ “In his Jesuit school, Paul-Michel wasn’t exactly a war hero [then again, he was only in his teens], but he did help other kids steal wood from the Nazis to heat the school.”⁴ During the German occupation, he experienced his...

During spring 1999, I watched as 22 aircraft laden with airborne infantry and equipment from the 3d Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment surged forward to form an impressive line of gray and camouflaged aircraft feeding onto the runway at Pope Air Force Base (AFB), North Carolina (see photos, next page). Each C-130 turned out of its parking location onto taxiways with near-drill-team precision. I reflected on the four previous 16-hour days involved in planning and preparation of the formation, including route analysis, many modifications, and then the scramble to provide each crew with mission-ready products. The mission was now under...

Foucault raises a key question in reference to the flow of power and knowledge: “What is the essence and mode of transformation of power relations?”¹ This discussion has shown how the panopticon can help identify critical pivot points in the power relations of a given architecture. However, in order to fully evaluate power surges, you must examine the flow with a power analysis focused on complex shifts, ruptures, and discontinuities underlying the power structure (fig. 9).² The base-line requirement is to “differentiate the networks and levels to which they [power events] belong” and to use power analysis to “reconstitute [detect,...

Real adventure begins at your first assignment when you interact with your primary customers (commanders, crews, and support personnel). The schoolhouse world quickly disappears in a flurry of daily demands. Within your office, you will experience influences of internal Foucaultian power surges from “innumerable points.”¹ Some challenges to face include manpower reductions, equipment shortages, and many deployments, as well as a wide array of additional duties. High demand for intelligence support continues to increase as shown in the following photo. Simply put—you will be expected to do more with less. Fortunately, your understanding of rhetorical theory can help.

From...

Your primary job as analysts is to excel as the military’s helpers to war fighters and decision makers. Hopefully, this discussion has assisted your “pursuit of expertise in analytic tradecraft” through a deeper understanding of rhetorical theory.¹ Rhetorical theory builds a superb foundation, enhancing the intelligence-analysis process at all levels of the discourse spectrum (from unit-level training to combatant-commander briefings). Specifically, the force of Foucault’s power and discontinuity analysis provides an insightful analytical perspective.

As Admiral King emphasized, “It is particularly important to comprehend the enemy point of view in all aspects.”² Importantly, the enemy point of view is all...