Institute for Security and Intelligence Management (I2SM)
About
The Institute for Intelligence and Security Management (I2SM) was established in July 2023 as an interdisciplinary institute of NBS Northern Business School, based in Hamburg, Germany.
The importance of security management functions within companies and organizations continues to grow. This development is driven by both current and past crises, as well as the resulting regulatory requirements. In addition, a large number of companies in Germany are classified as Critical Infrastructure and are therefore required to comply with security, business continuity, and resilience standards. At the same time, compliance regulations increasingly oblige organizations to investigate violations and misconduct within their own areas of responsibility.
Beyond regulatory requirements, the growing interconnectedness of business and society has increased organizational vulnerability, creating a greater need for measures that enhance resilience and the ability to cope with disruptions. A key challenge for all security management activities is the identification of potential threats and the reliable assessment of their likelihood. Consequently, information and its integration into decision-making processes are of fundamental importance to effective security management.
The use of automated systems and technological advances in sensing, communication, and data analytics provide new opportunities for a comprehensive assessment of risk factors. Current approaches in risk management, crisis management, resilience management, compliance management, and fraud management have proven insufficient to address existing challenges adequately. The reasons include, among others, inadequate concepts for data collection, processing, and analysis, as well as a lack of appropriate technological support. At the same time, implementation gaps persist due to insufficient expertise among stakeholders and end users.
In the military domain, existing intelligence processes and forecasting methodologies have undergone significant revision in recent years. The intelligence process and its sub-processes are designed to identify information requirements, collect and analyze information, produce intelligence products, and disseminate them to relevant stakeholders. Intelligence products support decision-makers by providing timely, relevant, decision-oriented, and action-oriented knowledge that enables informed and effective decision-making.
Rethinking Decision Relevance: Using ICP-LLM to Support Intelligence Work
Rethinking Decision Relevance: Using ICP-LLM to Support Intelligence Work
Intelligence aims to provide decision-makers in the military, law enforcement agencies, and private security organizations with an information and decision-making advantage. What is considered decision-relevant in contexts such as strategic foresight within the armed forces, corporate crisis management, or criminal analysis in police investigations should be defined by those who are ultimately responsible for making decisions. The provision of decision-relevant intelligence products is therefore a prerequisite for achieving this objective.
In security and criminal intelligence analysis, the Intelligence Collection Plan (ICP) serves as a key instrument for targeted information collection. It translates high-level information requirements—such as Critical Information Requirements (CCIRs) and Priority Intelligence Requirements (PIRs)—into concrete Specific Information Requirements (SIRs) and Essential Elements of Information (EEIs).
By structuring and organizing the research and analytical process, the ICP significantly enhances team collaboration. It enables the targeted delegation of specific EEIs, supports debiasing throughout the analytical process, and makes the process transparent, traceable, and auditable for third parties.
However, the manual creation of an ICP is time-consuming, prone to errors, and often influenced by cognitive biases. Advances in generative artificial intelligence—particularly Large Language Models (LLMs)—now offer the opportunity to partially automate this routine process. Generative AI can substantially facilitate routine tasks in intelligence planning and collection management. At the same time, the consistent retention of human oversight ensures the responsible and effective use of LLMs.
On November 3, 2025, the Intelligence Collection Plan – Large Language Model (ICP-LLM) will be officially launched. This innovative tool, developed through close collaboration between the Institute for Intelligence and Security Management (I2SM) at NBS Northern Business School, Structured Analysis Germany, and the NATO Civil-Military Cooperation Centre of Excellence (CCOE), will be made available here as a free download. Stay tuned!
The development of ICP-LLM will continue as part of an ongoing research project. We therefore welcome your comments, suggestions, and experiences using the tool. We look forward to your feedback: niklas.koch[at]i2sm.nbs.de