Module SGIA3771: Intelligence, The State and International Security

Department: Government and International Affairs

SGIA3771: Intelligence, The State and International Security

Prerequisites

• Any Level 2 SGIA module

Corequisites

• None

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None

Aims

• The module aims to introduce students to how the use (and abuse) of intelligence impacts upon contemporary politics and international security.
• The module focuses on what constitutes intelligence, its use as a function of government, its role in the decision-making process, and the extent to which the production and use of intelligence can be explained by either (a) reference to competing theoretical traditions (positivism/constructivism) or (b) conditioned by ethical or legal norms in how assessments are made, or operations conducted.
• By the end of the module, students will have gained a conceptual understanding of the differing ways intelligence informs policy and state-led action in the international system, the legal and normative debates over how intelligence is used, and the extent to which these debates have traction in explaining how intelligence is used and viewed beyond the Anglosphere.
• The module will not only nurtures an understanding over the conceptual approaches surrounding intelligence, but will allows students to critically reflect upon the development of secret institutions of the state and how, in turn, such institutions can ever be held accountable for their actions.

Content

• This module offers a conceptual and empirical understanding of the role played by intelligence, intelligence agencies and their (largely) state sponsors in the international system.
• Students will become familiar with how positivist and constructivist critiques offer contrasting understandings of the intelligence cycle, with students being encouraged to think through how this impacts upon state decision-making and the conduct of intelligence led operations in the international arena, ranging from influence operations, through to covert action and targeted assassination. Equally, students will be encouraged to apply constructs of intelligence conceptually and empirically beyond the Anglosphere to consider how intelligence is understood, managed, and indeed politicized in the Global South and impacts upon regional security.

Learning Outcomes

• Through the module students will gain an understanding and subject specific knowledge of:
• The core and competing conceptual approaches to the study of intelligence.
• The ability to critically apply such approaches to case studies and to recognise how intelligence drives specific decisions and outcomes.
• To understand and identify how and under what conditions confirmation bias impacts the use of intelligence in real world settings and how such bias is addressed.

• Students will also develop some subject specific skills, such as:
• The ability to critique, develop and apply relevant concepts, theories and approaches towards the study of intelligence related cases studies and themes.
• The ability to conduct independent research, including case study selection and conceptual framing.
• The ability to interrogate empirical data from a conceptual standpoint that highlights the epistemological challenges concerning how intelligence is used in pursuit of national security.

• Students will also develop some important key skills, suitable for underpinning study at this and subsequent levels, such as:
• Independent thought in analysing and critiquing existing scholarship on the subject area and in evaluating its contribution.
• Advanced ability to seek out and use relevant data sources, including electronic and bibliographic sources, as well as primary sources, and policy reports.
• Ability for independent thinking informed by academic debate at an advanced level.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• The module is taught by 10 x 1 hour bi-weekly lectures and 10 x 2 hour bi-weekly seminars. The bi-weekly lecture introduces students to the core conceptual approaches towards the study of intelligence, and how these concepts can be used to inform selected cases studies that inform decision-making, and the choices made by actors in pursuit of interests in the international system. The lectures provide a primer for the bi-weekly two-hour seminar. Topics discussed as part of small group work reflect the issues outlined in the lecture, which serves as a guide for the relevant readings and small group presentations ahead of the seminar.
• Seminars provide students with the forum to reflect and discuss the concepts introduced in the lectures and how they might be applied to the relevant case studies. Students will be assigned to designated groups (ensuring appropriate gender balance) where they will work collectively on an assigned topic based on a series of set questions.
• Some seminars will also be supplemented by 4 x 1 hour pre-recorded guest presentations by former intelligence practitioners and scholars of intelligence.
• Students will be expected to submit 1 x 1,500 formative essay consisting of a brief literature of the conceptual approaches towards understanding a given aspect of intelligence production. This will be submitted in week 8 of the Michaelmas Term.
• Students will be expected to submit 1 x 2,500 words essay that forms 50 percent of the overall assessment. The essay is designed to help students develop critical analysis, research skills and independent thinking.
• Students will also be expected to produce a National Intelligence Estimate on an agreed topic of contemporary relevance. This NIE brief of 1,500 words forms 50 percent of the overall assessment.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

Formative Assessment: 1 x 1500-word essay from an approved list.

■ Students who do not attend monitored activities shown under Teaching Methods and Learning Hours, or who fail to complete the summative or formative assessment(s) specified above, may be subject to the Academic Progress procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University.