Foreign Threat to U.S. National Elections

Intelligence Paper: Foreign Threat to U.S. National Elections

Background: The Department of Homeland Security has designated election systems as part of the nation’s critical infrastructure. The DHS Information Analysis Directorate was designed to analyze intelligence and information from other Intelligence Community (IC) partners (including the CIA, FBI, and DIA NSA) involving threats to the homeland and evaluate vulnerabilities of the nation’s infrastructure.

DHS intelligence reporting is intended to support state and local law enforcement, but many of those entities consider DHS reports irrelevant and uninformative. In many cases, law enforcement still reports that state fusion centers provide better, more timely information than DHS.

Assignment: As a DHS intelligence analyst, write an intelligence report on the threat to U.S. National Elections to inform state and local agencies. Include:

Description of the complex and wide-ranging threats facing our elections.
Identify the threat actors.
Describe the Intelligence Community’s strategy for countering these threats.
Describe the roles, responsibilities, and technical capabilities of the primary IC partners (i.e., ODNI, FBI, CIA, NSA, etc.) in supporting DHS.
Summarize DHS roles and responsibilities.
Make recommendations to improve intelligence strategies, collection, and threat assessments.
Requirements: Your paper should be at least 8-10 pages double-spaced, not including the cover page, introduction, and references.

The paper must cite at least one (1) academic or professional reference for each page written, located through the UMGC library.
Resources must be properly cited within the body of the text and reflected in the references using APA 7th edition format and citation rules.
Stay focused on your task. Use course materials, carefully cite your information, and ensure that the paper is plausible.
Be concise. Longer papers do not fare better if they contain irrelevant material.
Inform the reader. As with most Intelligence writing, shorter and more focused is best.