Teaching intelligence in a volatile environment

Abstract

The article discusses the development of intelligence studies in recent decades, reflected in many of the characteristics of other disciplines, among them venues for unclassified literature on intelligence, participation in academic conferences, and the significant growth of degree- or certificate-based graduate or undergraduate programs. The article goes on to discuss the need to ensure that the teaching of intelligence reflects changes in the two fundamental environments in which intelligence must operate, that is, an operational environment no longer marked by the predominance of a closed state peer adversary, and an information and information technology environment reflecting the dramatic changes that have taken place – and continue to take place – in that latter environment. Teaching intelligence in these complex and fluid environments will require a careful balance between addressing intelligence structures, processes, and methods that characterized 20th century intelligence with at least the likelihood that many of those fundamentals will require replacement or significant redefinition to meet twenty-first century needs. In these circumstances, teaching intelligence must mean preparing students to operate within – if not to create – an intelligence of the future.