Dear Intelligence Professional:

The government and industry members of the AFCEA Intelligence Committee are pleased to present this event as the next in an ongoing series of classified symposia focused on the challenges and opportunities facing the Intelligence Community. 

The nature of conflict continues to evolve, requiring change by the Intelligence Community (IC) and other institutions charged with defense of the Nation.  Our national security increasingly is threatened by a multiplicity of adversaries ranging from rogue states to extremist movements. 

Although conventional mission planning remains a priority, there is a clear recognition that our national security apparatus must adjust more quickly to the realities of contemporary conflict – what many are calling “the Long War.”

This “Long War” represents for the IC two simultaneous and related challenges: the need to support diplomacy and military operations overseas, and safeguarding our homeland.

Planners, policy-makers, and warfighters understand this dual challenge requires agile, reliable intelligence; new and more interactive intelligence-operator interfaces (both in the military and the homeland security arenas); and more timely application of intelligence.  More fundamentally, in the analytical corps it also requires an increased emphasis on appropriate recruitment, education, training, and retention.

While few argue with this assessment, many question whether the changes are possible…and especially in the timeframe required. 

The AFCEA Spring Intelligence Symposium will examine these issues in four focused sessions concentrating on the role of intelligence in fighting the Long War.  The first session will look outward and examine the military perspective.  The second will focus internally on homeland security.  The third will step back and address the needs of providing adaptive analytical tradecraft.  The final session will explore what technology brings to the mix.

We hope you will join us in the Defense Intelligence Analysis Center (DIAC), Bolling AFB, Washington, DC, on April 18-19, 2007.