ASTK12144U Intelligence services in the 21st century: New challenges, new actors and new practices

Volume 2013/2014
Content

With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the terrorist attacks on September 11th 2001, intelligence services have been forced to reorganize themselves in response to a new threat environment that is fundamentally different from that of the Cold War era. In addition, the digitalization of society presents numerous intelligence challenges such as information inundation, digital surveillance and knowledge sharing. This course explores these new challenges, their technical, political and ethical implications as well as the new actors and new practices that today dominate the intelligence enterprise.

In this course students will be introduced to the history of intelligence, study the current design of institutional structures (looking at the US in particular, but also comparatively at other countries), and examine contemporary intelligence methods and processes. The course also considers how private companies that supply intelligence and risk analysis to other companies and states have entered into and have become influential in today’s intelligence enterprise, and what implications may be identified from this. The course will thus cover how private security and intelligence companies participate in and work to broaden the concept of intelligence. In light of these many new trends in the intelligence field, the course discusses the technical, the political as well as the ethical challenges that arise, including the consequences of information inundation, digital surveillance and knowledge sharing. In particular questions of democratic accountability and responsibility will be covered. In the final stage of the course, students will be introduced to the practice of intelligence analysis and participate in a simulation exercise designed to provide a realistic intelligence challenge and to exercise the skills of analyzing a contemporary intelligence challenge as well as conveying intelligence insights to decision makers. The simulation will imply four stages: 1) Definition of intelligence needs and assignment of roles; 2) Open-source intelligence gathering and analysis; 3) Production of reports, and 4) Presentation and briefing to decision-makers. Intelligence practitioners will be invited to help make this simulation as realistic as possible.

Altogether, the course will consist of four main elements:

1) The history of national intelligence, foreign and domestic. What was the raison d’être behind the traditional understanding of intelligence and what are the main changes since the end of the Cold War? We will furthermore study the institutional design of national intelligence institutions today, and the institutionalized methods and processes of intelligence gathering.

2) The development of private intelligence. What role does private actors play in the production and distribution of intelligence information?

3) Democratic, social and technical challenges. How do new intelligence methods and demands for openness, surveillance, and digitalization challenge democracy? What are the consequences for how organizations (private and public) understand accountability and responsibility?

4) Simulation exercise

Learning Outcome

Upon completion of the course, students should be able to:

  1. Present various attempts at defining, understanding, and studying intelligence
     
  2. Describe, in general terms, the history and evolution of national intelligence during the World War I+II, the Cold War and post-Cold War eras
     
  3. Identify and assess the main challenges that intelligence services are faced with today
     
  4. Identify and critically analyze the main responses to the post-Cold War intelligence challenges
     
  5. Analyze and present basic conclusions from an analytical intelligence simulation exercise
 
This course gives a comprehensive introduction to the study of intelligence. It provides an understanding of how intelligence is defined, studied and how intelligence services have evolved over time. The course also provides a framework from which students are able to better understand the challenges that face intelligence services today. Finally, the course introduces students to the practice of intelligence analysis by way of a simulation exercise. The course should be of particular interest to students with a career desire in intelligence, but also students more broadly interested in any governmental or private sector analytical role.

Mark M. Lowenthal, Intelligence – From Secrets to Policy (Washington D.C.: CQ Press, 2009)

Peter Gill and Mark Phythian, Intelligence in an Insecure World (Cambridge: Polity, 2006)

Abram N. Shulsky and Gary J. Schmitt, Silent Warfare – Understanding the World of Intelligence (Washington D.C.: Potomac, 2002)

Christopher Andrew, Richard J. Aldrich and Wesley K. Clark (eds.), Secret Intelligence – A Reader (London: Routledge, 2009)

Peter Gill, Stephen Marrin and Mark Phythian (eds.), Intelligence Theory – Key questions and debates (London: Routledge, 2009)

John Keegan, Intelligence in War – The value – and limitations – of what the military can learn about the enemy (New York: Vintage Books, 2002)

Michael Herman, Intelligence Power in Peace and War (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1996)

Thomas H. Kean and Lee H. Hamilton, The 9/11 Report – The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (New York: St. Martin’s, 2004)

Jennifer E. Sims and Burton Gerber (eds.), Transforming U.S. Intelligence (Washington D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2005)

Gregory F. Treverton, Intelligence for and Age of Terror (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008)

Amy B. Zegart, Flawed By Design – The Evolution of the CIA, JCS and NSC (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1999)

Amy B. Zegart, Spying Blind – The CIA, the FBI, and the Origins of 9/11 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007)

Christopher Andrew and Oleg Gordievsky, KGB – The Inside Story (New York: HarperCollins, 1990)

Christopher Andrew, Defend the Realm – The Authorized History of MI5 (New York: Random House, 2009)

Philip H. J. Davies, MI6 and the Machinery of Spying (London: Frank Cass, 2004)

David Omand, Securing the State (New York: Columbia University Press, 2010)

Allison Stanger, One Nation Under Contract – The Outsourcing of American Power and the Future of Foreign Policy (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009)

Jody Freeman and Martha Minow (eds.), Government by Contract – Outsourcing and American Democracy (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009)

Glenn J. Voelz, Managing the Private Spies – Use of Commercial Augmentation for Intelligence Operations (Washington D.C.: JMIC Press, 2006)

Glenn J. Voelz, Contractors in the Government Workplace – Managing the Blended Workforce (Plymouth: Government Institutes, 2010)

Tim Shorrock, Spies For Hire – The Secret World of Intelligence Outsourcing (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008)

Dana Priest and William M. Arkin, Top Secret America – The Rise of the New American Security State (New York: Little, Brown and Co., 2011)

Simon Chesterman, One Nation Under Surveillance – A New Social Contract to Defend Freedom Without Sacrificing Liberty (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011)

Shane Harris, The Watchers – The Rise of America’s Surveillance State (New York: Penguin Press, 2010)

Roger Z. George and James B. Bruce (eds.), Analyzing Intelligence – Origins, Obstacles, and Innovations (Washington D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2008)

Richards J. Heuer Jr., Psychology of Intelligence Analysis (Langley, Virginia: Center for the Study of Intelligence, CIA, 1999)

Richards J. Heuer Jr. and Randolph H. Pherson, Structured Analytic Techniques for Intelligence Analysis (Washington D.C.: CQ Press, 2011)

Hank Prunckun, Handbook of Scientific Methods of Inquiry for Intelligence Analysis (Plymouth: The Scarecrow Press, 2010)

Jerome Clauser, An Introduction to Intelligence Research and Analysis (Plymouth: The Scarecrow Press, 2008)

Gregory F. Treverton and C. Bryan Gabbard, Assessing the Tradecraft of Intelligence Analysis (Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2008)

In addition to the abovementioned book titles, a number of academic articles will also be covered throughout the course. The first five books listed above in bold will be particularly useful for students with little or no prior knowledge of intelligence matters.
BA level education in social or political sciences with an interest in international relations, intelligence studies and/or security studies.
The course will consist of lectures, student discussions, intelligence analysis simulation exercises and inclusion of external lecturers.
Student participation: Students will be included to a large degree in preparing discussion points from the literature and will be asked to participate actively. The students are encouraged to find alternative literature as well as interesting cases to illustrate discussion points.
  • Category
  • Hours
  • Class Instruction
  • 28
  • Exam
  • 79
  • Preparation
  • 168
  • Total
  • 275
Credit
10 ECTS
Type of assessment
Oral examination
An oral exam based on a synopsis written by the student
Marking scale
7-point grading scale
Censorship form
External censorship
Criteria for exam assesment
  • Grade 12 is given for an outstanding performance: the student lives up to the course’s goal description in an independent and convincing manner with no or few and minor shortcomings
     
  • Grade 7 given for a good performance: the student is confidently able to live up to the goal description, albeit with several shortcomings
     
  • Grade 02 is given for an adequate performance: the minimum acceptable performance in which the student is only able to live up to the goal description in an insecure and incomplete manner