Institute

 

Mercyhurst Intelligence Studies Department Chair Jim Breckenridge never expected to be immortalized in a deck of cards, let alone as the formidable Jack of Diamonds, but he’s in good company.

Each card in the newly released "Intelligence Analyst’s Deck of Cards" bears a quote submitted by intelligence professionals from national security, business and law enforcement. The pithy sayings represent their favorites and include words of wisdom from working analysts to educators to philosophers, among them Machiavelli, George Friedman, Phaedrus, Ronald Reagan, Louis Pasteur, Nietzsche, Albert Einstein and dozens more.

The project is the brainchild of Kristan Wheaton, J.D., a Mercyhurst intelligence studies associate professor who is widely known for his creative use of games in the higher ed classroom. While not a teaching tool per se, the poker-size deck of playing cards is a complementary addendum and a way of infusing learning in everyday experiences. Besides appreciating the relevant quotations on each card, individuals are challenged to try to break the encrypted messages on the jokers in the deck.

Wheaton said his idea was spawned by reading quotes on e-mail correspondences from fellow intelligence professionals.

“I saw lots of quotes accompanying people’s signatures and realized how popular they were,” he said. “I thought it would be interesting to bring them together in a collection that would resonate with real-world intelligence analysts, and the deck of cards came to mind.”

So, using his popular blog, Sources & Methods, Wheaton solicited quotations from intelligence professionals from around the world. To his surprise, he received nearly 1,000 responses. He pored over them, choosing his top 100, and then asked his readers to pick their favorites from among them. The top 50 vote-getters became part of the deck and were ranked in bridge order, with the Ace of Spades bearing the most popular quotation. That one, which goes to the heart of an analyst’s experience, comes from working analyst Kathleen Cassedy:

“Summarizing is not the same as analyzing.”

Others favorites include:
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.”
Aristotle

“The noblest service comes from nameless hands, and the best servant does his work unseen.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes

“You are not doing your job if your research doesn’t surprise you.”
Cynthia Storer

“If you think intelligence is expensive, try ignorance.”
David Jimenez

The only quotation from a member of the Mercyhurst intel family to rise to the top was Breckenridge’s maxim:
“No matter what your conclusions are, always ask yourself if you have factored in the possibility of deception.”

Meanwhile, the cards are selling fast, reports Mercyhurst bookstore manager Dan Cullen, with orders from across the United States and foreign countries like Australia and Belgium.

Actually, this is not the first successful game card game for which Mercyhurst’s intelligence studies department can take credit. While serving in the U.S. Army, two former Mercyhurst intel students, Sgt. Shawn Mahoney and Sgt. Scott Boehmler, helped develop the famous "Deck of Cards" that was used to identify high-value members of Saddam Hussein's regime.

The "Intelligence Analyst’s Deck of Cards" sells for $5.95 and can be ordered by visiting the Mercyhurst bookstore’s website: lakershop.mercyhurst.edu. Proceeds benefit the three student clubs operated under the auspices of the Mercyhurst intelligence studies program.

Wheaton said he is particularly proud that the entire project, from design to printing to packaging, was completed within 10 miles of Mercyhurst’s Erie campus.

“The local bids were the most competitive and all the money stayed right here in Erie County,” he said.