Statement on ISW Methodology May 4, 2023 The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) welcomes robust and rigorous debate on the issues ISW covers and is especially grateful for the interaction with and feedback from those who engage seriously with the methodological challenges of performing intelligence from publicly available information. ISW’s entire team shares a passion for sound tradecraft and a desire to engage openly regarding our methodology, including both our analytic and forecasting successes as well as our limitations. We seek to raise the general level of discussion of national security and especially military issues and are grateful for the aid of all who contribute to that effort. A few key takeaways regarding ISW’s approach can help inform readers about ISW’s work and establish constructive topics for engagement: ISW applies rigorous intelligence tradecraft that reflects best practices drawn from the US intelligence community. ISW uses technical language from the military and intelligence community in its products in order to maintain the rigor of its tradecraft and communicate with the greatest possible precision. ISW’s extensive, daily collection and analysis provides a highly tested baseline of existing patterns, enabling relatively fast identification of anomalies and inflections. ISW’s ability to make a judgment on a given …read more Source:: Institute for the Study of...