Reflections on CIA Analysis: Is it Finished?

Despite the CIA's improved analytical tradecraft and increased resources, the future of its analytic mission remains in doubt. Post-9/11 improvements have been coupled with a continued focus on current intelligence priorities that minimize attention to the development of strategic research and deeper knowledge. Simply increasing the number of analysts has not produced deeper expertise. The CIA's traditional recruitment and training methods, as well as its rewards and promotion system, encourage analysts to avoid concentrating on any single area of regional or functional expertise in favor of moving around the agency to build a successful career. A continued reliance on risk-avoidance security practices also restricts analysts' contact with non-government and foreign experts who often have needed political and cultural knowledge of intelligence topics. To rectify these inadequacies, the CIA's analytic directorate needs to develop incentives for analysts who wish to develop more strategic analysis and remove the security barriers to closer collaboration with experts outside the US government. Developing cross-agency analytic collaboration would also maximize expertise and would benefit from intelligence community-wide training programs similar to what the US military does at its senior service colleges.     

Pure-strategy Nash equilibrium in the spatial model with valence: existence and characterization

Public Choice - Pure-strategy Nash equilibria almost never exist in spatial majority voting games when the number of positional dimensions is at least two, as the majority core is typically empty...     

An improved method for semen alpha-L-fucosidase typing--distribution in the Wuhan population of China

An improved method for the separation of the genetic variants of alpha-L-fucosidase in human semen is described. The method involves, isoelectric focusing in ultrathin-layer PAG containing a mixture of ampholines, pH 5-7 and pH 3.5-9.5, and separator HEPES. The Fu pattern obtained is simple, easy to interpret, and reproducible. The occurrence of fucosidase phenotypes in 189 semen samples from the population of Wuhan was investigated, and the frequencies of the Fu alleles were calculated.