Mitchell's Article Wins National Award
Gordon Mitchell's article, "Team B Intelligence Coups", has been named outstanding article of the year by the National Communication Association's Political Communication Division.
Mitchell's article draws from argumentation theory to explore how early investigations of the Iraq prewar intelligence failure sidestepped a key dimension of the problem - subversion of the intelligence analysis function by Team B entities such as the Pentagon's Policy Counterterrorism Evaluation Group.
The policy salience of these findings is punctuated by M. Karen Walker, a former public affairs officer with the U.S. Information Agency: "How analysts form and gain adherents to hypotheses, and the process by which analysts generate actionable information for planners and decision-makers, is a highly salient topic. Mitchell's contribution deserves wider play in venues more likely to reach defense and security affairs officials."
In his nominating letter, Stephen Hartnett, Associate Professor of Communication at the University of Illinois, writes "Mitchell's essay is politically pertinent, historically rich, and analytically savvy. It is a model of brave and sophisticated criticism." Since publication, "Team B Intelligence Coups" has been featured on international weblogs and included in syllabi for argumentation courses.
The winning article is the premier refereed publication out of the University of Pittsburgh's Schenley Park DAWG (Debate Authors Working Group). The DAWG supports efforts by current and former forensics educators striving convert their intellectual work into scholarly publications. A key premise animating the group's efforts is that debate scholars may be able to pursue more effectively scholarly knowledge production in a collaborative mode that mirrors the processes of intense feedback and cooperative give-and-take instantiated within the intercollegiate policy debate tournament culture.
This process helped refine the "Team B Intelligence Coups" article, especially pp. 145-49, where DAWG participant feedback during a May 5, 2006 meeting helped hone an angle for the piece that grounded it in the work of Douglas Ehninger, Wayne Brockriede, and most importantly, former Pitt professor of communication Robert P. Newman, whose "Communication Pathologies of Intelligence Systems," (Communication Monographs 1975) can be read as a companion piece.
With 781 members, the Political Communication Division is one of NCA's largest divisions. Mitchell is scheduled to accept the award following the division's business meeting at the NCA convention in Chicago this coming November. More on Mitchell's award is available at websites hosted by the University of Pittsburgh's School of Arts and Sciences and the Matthew B. Ridgway Center for International Security Studies.
UPDATE - "Team B Intelligence Coups" was recognized with a second national award, the Daniel Rohrer Research Award from the American Forensic Association. For more, see the School of Arts and Sciences http://www.as.pitt.edu/news/articles/mitchell2.html website.
