Academic-intelligence relationships: opportunities, strengths, weaknesses and threats

ABSTRACT

Academics and practitioners interact on the basis of formal and informal mechanisms. This article examines these mechanisms as opportunities for collaboration, identifies their key strengths and weaknesses, and discusses the threats that make academia a sensitive ground for exploitation. The first section is focused on the contributions of academia to the intelligence profession and is organized around the primary functions identified in the intelligence cycle. The second section is focused on the contributions of the intelligence profession to academia, and is organized around four themes, namely the education of professors and students, the education and training of future intelligence professionals, public debate and the development of a disciplinary body of knowledge. The final section discusses threats that endanger the independence, integrity and freedom of academia.

KEYWORDS:

• Academia
• intelligence
• relationships

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.