Historically, intelligence studies focused on intelligence history, collection, analysis, cooperation, oversight, covert action, counterintelligence, education, diplomacy, producer-consumer relations, war, terrorism, security, and organizational culture. Today, we also increasingly discuss the inherent interdisciplinary character needed in intelligence research and practice and the confluence of new technologies and human innovation in creating resilient societies to the hybrid threats featured by the 21st-century landscape. Furthermore, intelligence research has become a site of vivid debate between those who wish to maintain a positivist and objectivist paradigm of research in intelligence and those who see its study and practice (wherever it is conducted) as occurring within contexts characterized by power relations among competing groups. However, this special issue remains open to various approaches and perspectives and welcomes contributions from all spectres of the debate.
The academia’s role in this endeavor is two-fold: on the one hand, intelligence research is involved in shaping better organizational, analytical, system, technological, and security practices, while intelligence education, in its turn, is expected to produce training programs that can respond to the challenges of a rapidly changing security landscape. Particular attention shall also be given to contributions that shed light on less known intelligence cultures, that provide comparative analysis of distinct cultures and/or to those that aim to discuss a common European core of intelligence education and culture.
We welcome, but is not limited to, contributions that address the following questions/issues:
- how intelligence education in the 21st century can impact intelligence processes and practices
- new perspectives on intelligence theory and practice
- relevant results of completed or ongoing research projects in intelligence and security, with an added value to the current knowledge
- interrogations on the status quo of intelligence organizations, practices and processes
- drivers of change and reforms in intelligence organizations,
- development of a shared strategic cultural perspective, ethos and values
- how the profession of intelligence is likely to develop in the coming decades
- the role of education in shaping adaptive and competitive practitioners
