How to Take Command of the “Commander’s Intelligence Program”
Robert P. Ashley, Jr. and Thomas W. Spahr
September 16, 2025
“Why isn’t my J2 giving me the information I need? What do all these intelligence agencies do for me anyway?”
As U.S. military officers progress in rank, their relationship with intelligence evolves. Senior officers interact more with the intelligence community as the military assigns them to service component commands, joint task forces, and combatant commands. Further, technological advances and the increasing availability of data have made intelligence both more capable and complex. The operational-level commander has an intelligence officer — a J2, G2, N2, or A2 (we use J2 in this essay) — to help bridge the gap to the immense intelligence community, while also integrating its reporting with subordinate collectors. But it is inherently a commander’s responsibility to lead the management and integration of intelligence into operations: They should seek understanding, contribute to the collection effort, and tell their intelligence team what they need to succeed.
By doing so, senior military officers executing military campaigns can cultivate and lead a successful intelligence effort within their organizations. The best U.S. operational commanders from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have taken personal responsibility for their intelligence program: They have “owned” it. We base the observations offered here on interviews with military senior leaders, academic research, and our own lived experiences as intelligence officers.
https://warontherocks.com/2025/09/how-to-take-command-of-the-commanders-intelligence-program/
