Local Intelligence Analysis vs Regional /National /Global
Your security. Whether it be personal or home security, intelligence gathering and analysis is part of the equation. And local intelligence should be your main or immediate priority. Here’s what I mean…
Situational awareness. While it’s important to know what’s happening outside of your locality, within the context of your personal and home security it’s best to spend more of your time focused on “local”, and local intelligence /analysis.
I recall reading about a “rule-of-thumb” for this (intelligence /analysis). It was 60-30-10. That is, 60% local, 30% regional, and 10% national/global.
3 Levels Of Intelligence Analysis
1. Local
2. Regional
3. National/Global
Local Intelligence
That which is immediately important to us.
– Home
– Neighborhood
Your immediate sphere – your home, your neighborhood, your locality.
Why? Because what will matter most is your local situation.
And should it ever happen, regarding SHTF, having local intelligence will be paramount to your security and your decision making as you move forward through the event.
While the ‘stuff’ that’s going on nationally (or regionally) may eventually affect you locally (which is why it’s important to know and understand those levels), it is very important to have a grip on your own area of operations – your home – your neighborhood – your town. These things will affect you first, and the most!
Local intelligence /analysis is the most important. It’s literally your small local geographical sphere of operations. Within this sphere is its own geography, terrain, streets, and your own home and property. The people who live around you, and in your neighborhood. Your local town. The various businesses. There’s a town government and those who run it. Services. Local law enforcement. Emergency personnel. Etc.. There’s a lot going on in your own locality.
The people within your local sphere. They each have their own opinions, beliefs, political leanings, motivations, their own readiness (or lack of), their own influence among the community. How much of that are you aware of? How much do you know about your own neighbors? Your town?
The more you know about the people within your community, the better prepared you will be (knowledge wise) about the specifics that may affect you, be it good, bad, or indifferent.
Regional Intelligence
The area where we can identify larger trends.
– Regional
– County
– State
Chances are that you’re not in direct contact with sources beyond your locality. Regional, county, state. Information /intelligence will likely come from external sources. For example these sources may include your local news outlets, local radio, newspapers (do people get those anymore?), internet, word of mouth, etc..
However the goings-on within your county and state will potentially impact you. It’s good to keep up with this. And if motivated, to provide your own influence into such matters if that’s what floats your boat.
National/Global Intelligence
The largest in overall scope.
– National
– Global
It’s easy to get caught up in this level of intelligence /analysis! The mainstream media pushes very, very hard to influence us all on a grand scale. Most of us here know that there are powerful agendas at work, and indeed some of this could eventually affect you and I in very real ways. And it’s quite important in my opinion to stay on top of what’s happening on the national and global scale. I tend to spend a lot of time in this area of intelligence gathering, because it interests me (and concerns me!). Why? Because there’s some really bad ‘stuff’ going on at this level.
However from the standpoint of time spent regarding one’s security and intelligence gathering, it certainly makes sense to get your ducks in a row (first) from the perspective of your own local situation.
Update: The logic of a multi-tiered outlook (global-national / regional / local) is not unique or proprietary. It’s simply a common sense approach (to many things – not just ‘security’ or ‘intelligence’). I’ve written about this basic concept a number of times over the years here on the blog.
With that said, I was inspired to write this particular article after having read a book that I purchased a number of years ago. I found it to be quite interesting and a good read on this topic (and many other aspects besides this one). My source was ReadyMadeResources:
SHTF Intelligence: An Intelligence Analyst’s Guide to Community Security
[ Read:
When The Grid Goes Down – It’s Going To Be ALL LOCAL