A few weeks ago, the Chanticleer Intelligence Brief launched a brand new project. It is a new publication called the Weekly Intelligence Brief (WIB). As its title suggests, the WIB is published weekly during regular semesters, and contains news briefs supplied by CIB members who specialize in various areas of the world. The goal is to allow CIB members to inform the WIB readership about important developments in their areas of focus, while at the same time practicing and refining their written briefing skills. The WIB is available both in print and online, and can be accessed here.

Lindsey Hamilton

The idea behind the WIB was proposed by Lindsey Hamilton (photo), who is currently serving as the publication’s first Editor-in-Chief. Lindsey is currently a senior majoring in Intelligence and National Security Studies at Coastal Carolina University. She has been involved in the CIB for over a year, initially spending time on the organization’s Alternative Topics desk, where she examined transnational human trafficking. She is currently a member of the CIB’s Americas desk, where she focuses on domestic militancy and terrorism. Lindsey says that she came up with the idea for the WIB after noticing that many of the people she knew were uninformed about developments in the world beyond the main headlines. “That is often unintentional because it can be difficult to find a reliable central news source”, says Lindsey. The Louisville, KY, major says that her goal behind creating the WIB was “to take what we do in the CIB and give everyone, including other intelligence studies majors not involved in the CIB, easy access to our product”.

Assisting Lindsey in her effort is Logan Jarrell, a Marine Science and Biology major at CCU, who has been involved in the CIB since January of 2017. Logan, who is from Beckley, West Virginia, previously staffed the CIB’s Alternative Topics desk, examining Arctic policy. He is currently studying the global politics of net neutrality as a member of the organization’s Cyber desk. Logan first heard about the CIB from friends and says he was greatly impressed by his first visit to one of the group’s meetings. “Many organizations on campus are rather inactive, so CIB was a good contrast to them”, says

Logan Jarrell

the West Virginia native. “I also saw the CIB as an opportunity to further-hone my ability to analyze information effectively —a crucial skill for scientists”, he adds. Logan says he sees his role as Associate Editor of the WIB as an opportunity to “help spread the message about the CIB”, an organization that he sees as helping to “really transform students at CCU. The CIB is an organization I feel welcomed and included in, so I want to see it grow to its full potential”, he adds.

Lindsey, the CIB’s Editor-in-Chief, says that the concept behind the CIB mirrors the concept of the President’s Daily Brief, a top-secret document provided each morning to the president and vice president of the United States by the Director of National Intelligence. The main goal, says Lindsey, is to further-prepare CIB members for success post-graduation. “I want the WIB to become a go-to source for students, and even for people beyond the university”, she adds.

The WIB is published on Monday mornings. Several issues have already been published, and they can be read online here. Every CIB member or analyst can submit briefs for publication in the WIB. The guidelines for submissions are available here. The WIB project is possible thanks to a generous Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) grant provided by the QEP committee at Coastal Carolina University.