Course Description
A capstone course in the application of the concepts, tools and techniques of Strategic Intelligence and Intelligence Analysis to real world scenarios, developed in conjunction with input and oversight from government intelligence agencies. This course is a culmination of the Strategic Intelligence curriculum, applying the tools and techniques taught in GOVT 381 and GOVT 484.
For information regarding prerequisites for this course, please refer to the Academic Course Catalog.
Course Guide
View this course’s outcomes, policies, schedule, and more.*
*The information contained in our Course Guides is provided as a sample. Specific course curriculum and requirements for each course are provided by individual instructors each semester. Students should not use Course Guides to find and complete assignments, class prerequisites, or order books.
Rationale
Students will learn an established critical thinking framework that they can use to determine purpose in analysis; ask penetrating and essential questions; discriminate between relevant and irrelevant information; identify key assumptions; and reason to second and third order implications relevant to US national interests. Moreover, students will become familiar with the types and sources of recurring mistakes that untrained—and many trained—observers make when analyzing complex international events, and they will be acquainted with an intellectual toolkit for correcting cognitive biases, avoiding analytic pitfalls, and detecting deception. This toolkit is comprised of SATs, futurist methodologies, and argumentation practices useful across domains of government and business intelligence.
Course Assignment
No details available.
After reading the Course Syllabus and Student Expectations, the student will complete the related checklist found in the Course Overview.
Discussions are collaborative learning experiences. Therefore, the student is required to provide a thread in response to the provided prompt for each Discussion. Each thread must be 400 words and demonstrate course-related knowledge. In addition to the thread, the student is required to reply to 2 other classmates’ threads. Each reply must be 100 words. The thread and replies must each contain at least one scholarly citation.
Research Paper: Historical Analogies Assignment
The student will write a research paper exploring two examples of historical analogies that recur in popular discourse about foreign affairs. The student will asses to what degree these analogies help or hinder an understanding of current events to which they are applied.
The paper must be 3 pages, and be in current APA format. The student must include at least four citations from separate sources.
Research Paper: Most Difficult Obstacle to Providing Accurate Intelligence Analysis Assignment
The student will write a research paper comparing and contrasting complexity and denial & deception in terms of the difficulties they pose to intelligence analysis. The paper must be 3 pages, and be in current APA format. The student must include at least four citations from separate sources.
Research Paper: Improving Your Analysis with a Structured Analytic Technique Assignment
The student will write an assessment of a foreign affairs event or situation using one of the three Structured Analytic Techniques presented in the course. The student must answer the questions, “What is going on? Why is it going on? What is the likely impact on US national security? What are the outlook and implications of it happening?”
The paper must be 4 pages, and be in current APA format. The student must include at least four citations form separate sources.
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