When Will They Ever Learn? A Comparison of Intelligence Failures by the US in 1941 and by Israel in 2023

 

 

 

Military intelligence failures, which have been cited as major causes of Israel’s lack of preparedness on Oct. 7, 2023, are eerily similar to those that preceded the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, four decades earlier. In both cases, human errors arising from preconceived views of the adversary’s intentions and capabilities, communication failures within the chain-of-command, and possibly sexism, had disastrous consequences. Dr. Leng’s lecture illustrates the similarities in the two cases and demonstrates that the technological advances in intelligence gathering have not resolved the key issues: human judgment and communication.