The discipline of collecting, analyzing, and utilizing information, or intelligence, gathered from an enemy state or region. This kind of information gathering and analysis has existed since antiquity, but it was not until the advent of computers, unmanned planes, radar, and satellite imagery that intelligence gathering became the huge undertaking it is today. In the United States there are 17 intelligence gathering agencies, most notably the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the National Security Administration (NSA), and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). These agencies are all members of the United States Intelligence Community, founded in 1981.
