Knowledge gives strength to the arms: Framing and defining Combat Intelligence as a discrete function within Military Intelligence

The field of intelligence studies has moved beyond its focus on intelligence at the state level, with recent work examining the sub-state level, including non-state actors both violent and non-violent. The expansion of intelligence studies into these new areas shows that intelligence behaves differently in different environments, with variations in requirements, approach, consumers, and policymakers. Given the extent states rely on the military for intelligence, this is an important area for investigation but rather than tackle individual aspects (such as particular campaigns or aspects of processes and procedures), as has been done so far, there must be a framework for understanding military intelligence as a whole, and combat intelligence as a distinct function within that. This article will frame and define combat intelligence as a discipline and a product, with a unique set of behaviours and characteristics due to its place in military decision-making and planning, and the nature of the relationship between intelligence producers and consumers. It will also demonstrate that examination of combat intelligence through perspectives used to look at state level intelligence – role, oversight, failure, politicisation, and processes – offers up new insights into the production and use of intelligence in a military context that improve our understanding of it as a discrete sphere of activity.