Master of Arts in Intelligence Studies-Capstone Option

RECOMMENDED AS FIRST PROGRAM COURSE. REQUIRED AS ONE OF FIRST THREE PROGRAM COURSES. Learn basic research methods skills for addressing security and intelligence studies problems and issues. You focus on the detailed procedures for conducting qualitative case studies, which is the foundation for most basic security and intelligence research conducted in academic, government, and business circles. You become well versed in research planning, secondary data collection, and qualitative data analysis methods and how these methods relate to the larger field of social science research. You will also learn the analysis of competing hypotheses approach to research design. You are also introduced to basic social theory which supports security and intelligence research. The course prepares you for later learning intermediate and advanced security and intelligence methods.

RECOMMENDED AS SECOND PROGRAM COURSE. Strategic Intelligence is an examination of the current structure, function, capabilities, and contributions of individual U.S. national intelligence community members. Students appraise the intelligence cycle, including an overview of the intelligence planning, collection, exploitation, analysis, production, and dissemination phases. A review is also made of intelligence oversight structures and restrictions on U.S. national intelligence community activities as prescribed by federal law, executive and agency directives, and the intelligence oversight system.

This course is a study of intelligence collection and information gathering. It focuses on a variety of aspects related to how both the United States and foreign nations gather and process intelligence. The student will develop a comprehensive understanding of the role collection plays in the intelligence community, how various policies affect collection, and how different intelligence agencies monitor and collect intelligence.

This course provides the student with a firm foundation in qualitative analysis and modeling techniques, including rational choice, utility, and game theories, in order to create and test hypotheses. Students will apply basic trend analysis techniques and forecasting methods such as probability tree analysis, analytic hierarchy process, alternative scenarios/futures, Delphi technique, and the Lockwood Analytical Method for Prediction (LAMP).

This course will aid the student in writing clear and concise intelligence related documentation. Through a series of practical intelligence related exercises, the student will learn to choose the appropriate writing style required to properly and effectively communicate their message to their simulated target audience, including proper formatting and citation styles, as well as the best use of tables, diagrams, graphics and charts.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED THAT A RESEARCH METHODS COURSE IS TAKEN BEFORE THIS COURSE. This course first explores the nature of human thought processes: why we think the way we do, and the many analytical, perceptual, and cognitive errors that plague our efforts to conduct sound, dispassionate analysis. The course then addresses various analytical tools that are available to the analyst, using practical exercises to reinforce same. A major research project will demonstrate the applicability of these techniques to analysis, using a notional/contemporary scenario.

Learn how to improve interagency relationships among security, defense, and intelligence agencies. This course introduces the student to theoretical and practical material for understanding the behavior of individual organizations and what can be done to make organizations work more closely together at the federal, state, and local levels. Students are introduced to theoretical material on organizational cultures; bureaucracy; social trust; individual, group, and organizational decision-making; and interagency collaboration. Emphasis is placed on explaining why organizations act the way they do and how to improve interagency coordination. Prerequisite: INTL500 Research Methods in Security and Intelligence Studies or other APUS 500-level graduate research methods course.

The course focuses on both U.S. and foreign aspects of counterintelligence, including the history and evolution of counterintelligence, the differences between passive and active CI measures, principles and processes of counterintelligence and its relationship to covert action, the ethics of counterintelligence, and the evaluation of CI successes and an estimate of the damage caused by failures. The student will develop a comprehensive knowledge of the use and practices of counterintelligence, especially in protecting homeland security and national security interests against foreign adversaries. Additionally, the collection process and the changes for the future in the infusion of CI technology will be discussed.

Examines intelligence community responses to threats to the U.S. homeland from transnational and domestic terrorists, including the employment of Weapons of Mass Destruction. Threats to the U.S. borders, including illegal immigration, narcotics smuggling, money laundering, commercial smuggling, and other organized crime activities are also covered.

This course is a study of the historical, theoretical, political, moral, legal, and other dynamics and implications associated with all forms of assassination. Through case studies, public law, and historical example, students will explore the reasons behind, the objectives sought, and implications of assassination from national and geopolitical perspectives.

This course analyzes the critical intelligence challenges facing the Nation through the perspective of the CIA's history. Students will examine the CIA’s record in mounting covert and paramilitary operations, providing timely intelligence to meet the urgent demands of policy makers, running sensitive penetrations of foreign governments, and establishing liaison with foreign intelligence services to enhance intelligence collection. The course will evaluate the harm caused to the CIA by recent security disclosures. Finally, the course will estimate the CIA’s success in meeting the challenges of the post-9/11 environment, especially as they relate to the expanding War on Terrorism and Homeland Security requirements.

This course examines issues of ethics and morality in the context of Intelligence. It begins with an in-depth critical analysis of the functioning and capability of contemporary U.S. Intelligence from the viewpoint of professional ethics. It then goes on to address the potential for shortcomings and gaps, and discusses firm, coherent solutions. Students will research the moral, psychological and legal issues pertaining to military decision-making in counter-terrorism, homeland security, asymmetric warfare and conventional military campaigns. Following an examination of administrative evil in different contexts and on several historical scales, the course concludes with an evaluation of prevarication and related ethical-moral choices faced in Intelligence, military and civilian life.

Students in this course evaluate the growing field of competitive intelligence also known outside the U.S. as business intelligence. Topics will include how to turn information into intelligence, and how that intelligence can be used to gain a competitive edge in the market place. Particular emphasis will be placed on the use of open source intelligence, as well as the use of competitive intelligence to analyze a business’s vulnerability to information operations that its competitors may use against it. Additional topics include state-sponsored economic intelligence gathering and covert and deceptive activities. Military students should not confuse the civilian business term of "competitive intelligence" with the military term of "competitive intelligence" which means a competing, independent analysis of the same source material.

With the dawning of the 21st century, the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) faces new challenges and threats. This course examines how the various elements of intelligence leadership, management, and coordination are equipped to respond to these emerging threats to U.S. national security. After reviewing the history of IC reform, the student will assess the current status of these reforms and seek to discuss necessary changes to the IC in order to maintain its edge and provide for the common defense.

Students learn to successfully use the terrain and weather to advantage in the conduct of military and civil applications. The four areas of concentration that are studied in detail are landforms and geomorphic processes, the atmosphere (climate and weather), biosphere (flora and fauna), and hydrosphere (rivers and seas). The objective of this course is to bring students along so that they can interpret the basic aspects of meteorology and the impact of weather on landform processes and human activity, evaluate the various climates of the world with respect to their characteristics and regional context; assess the soil forming process and types of soil to include their characteristics, value, and regional expression; explain the elements of the biosphere and their contribution to the environment; describe the fundamentals of geologic structure and rock types; and finally, compare the various geomorphic processes and analyze the resultant landforms.

This course examines Signals Intelligence focusing on the underlying technology of SIGINT and its application to various military and civilian intelligence questions at both the tactical and strategic level primarily through the use of the case study approach. Focusing primarily on communications intelligence (COMINT) and electronic intelligence (ELINT) this course will also address the lesser-known disciplines of MASINT, FISINT, etc. Collection platforms will be studied in relation to their inherent capabilities and application against various intelligence targets. The peculiar constraints on intelligence analysis in the SIGINT environment will be explored with the purpose of understanding the limitations of SIGINT and SIGINT’s role in the broader all-source intelligence analysis process. The course is held at the unclassified, open-source level.

Students will learn controlled HUMINT operations from a management perspective, to include mission-target analysis; operational planning, execution and evaluation; cover, security and communications; collection and reporting; and financial management. Students will be expected to demonstrate the ability to assess, articulate and defend the soundness of operational concepts, plans and budgets.

This course will provide the student with a solid foundation in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), powerful tools used for the collection, analysis and display of spatial data. The true link between GIS and intelligence studies is the ability to make informed decisions based on the data available, by assigning weight in terms of importance to the various datasets, and finally creating associative analyses to determine a course of action pertaining to a person, group, nation or region. This course will help the student to achieve this important objective. (Prerequisite: INTL500). Note: The ESRI course software will not run on computers using Macintosh [3 Semester Hours]

Students explore the contribution of imagery intelligence to the all-source effort, the advantages and disadvantages of imagery intelligence, the collection sensors' capabilities and limitations, and the interpretation process of the imaged subject.

This course is designed to teach students the theory and practice of scientific and technical intelligence, including weapons intelligence. The student will develop a comprehensive knowledge of the following topics: defining the S&T problem; fundamental principles of S&T analysis; the use of models in S&T intelligence; cultural and organizational influences in S&T; basic technology assessments and weapons systems assessments; predictive analysis of both technology and systems developments; and communicating with the S&T customer. The course also covers specialized technical collection methods that are unique sources for S&T analysis; and dealing with denial and deception. It relies primarily on case studies and selected readings.

This course provides the student with an introduction to the methods and techniques of criminal intelligence analysis and strategic organized crime. The rapid increase in multinational analysis and transnational organized crime, corporate drug trafficking organizations, and the impact of crime on national and international policy has created a critical need for law enforcement intelligence experts in the relatively new field of criminal intelligence. The course shows how to use criminal intelligence analysis to predict trends, weaknesses, capabilities, intentions, changes, and warnings needed to dismantle criminal organizations. This course provides knowledge needed by law enforcement professionals at the federal, state, and local level, by criminal intelligence analysts working in private industry, and by military intelligence personnel making a transition from a military to a law enforcement career. The course provides a background of the use of intelligence to dismantle criminal organizations and businesses. This course emphasizes criminal/law enforcement intelligence, as opposed to criminal investigation.

This course is a study and analysis of international threats to security. It focuses on a variety of aspects related to both U.S. and foreign threat analysis and action, including the evolution of responses to threats, perspectives on threat action since World War II, principles of threat analysis and response, and assessments of successes and failures of such actions. The student will develop a comprehensive knowledge of threat analysis, how intelligence agencies in the U.S. assess and counter international threats in order to guard U.S. global interests and protect U.S. national security from adversaries, and how various threats affect national security policy and decision-making.

The purpose of this course is to teach the student how the current I&W system is organized, how it is supposed to work in theory, and how it has actually worked in practice. In addition, students will examine the traditional and alternative approaches to the I&W process. Students will learn about the various types of intelligence indicators and how they fit into the process of intelligence prediction, which is an implied function of I&W. Students will also examine various historical case studies to learn about the four basic "sources of error" in I&W.

The student analyzes potential and actualized regional threats to U.S. national security and economic interests, specifically, the most volatile threat areas and high-risk nuclear flashpoints. These include the Sino-North Korean alliance, incorporating nuclear proliferation and exploitation of U.S. & UN aid; the Indo-Pakistani rivalry including the Kashmir dispute and nuclear arsenals; the historical & legal aspects of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including the potential for use of nuclear weapons, motives and interests of protagonists and regional & international parties. The course continues by examining the rejection by Militant Islamic fundamentalism of the prevailing global free market system, modernity, majority secular world, and New World Order. The syllabus concludes with an assessment of the hazards posed to the United States by the ideological, economic, military, defense, social, expansionist and long term objectives of the European Union.

Students in this course will study personality profile fundamentals of foreign military and political leaders. They will study personality assessment from a psychoanalytic viewpoint, observe questions asked by intelligence agencies, study several various military and political leaders in depth.

Students review the relationships between intelligence and national security strategy using an historical case study approach, analyzing both past and contemporary national security issues from an intelligence perspective. Students also analyze the evolving relationship between intelligence and national security strategy from the beginning of World War I to the present. THIS COURSE NOT OFFERED AT APUS, BUT MAY BE FULFILLED THROUGH TRANSFER AGREEMENTS OR A SUBSTITUTION COURSE. PLEASE CONTACT YOUR STUDENT ADVISOR FOR DETAILS.

This course covers the role of intelligence in counterinsurgency, short-term interventions, and peace operations. Particular attention is given to how well the intelligence system has succeeded in using human intelligence in low intensity operations.

Students in this course synthesize the elements of information warfare or what is more commonly called today, Information Operations (IO). The course will cover actions taken to deny, degrade, disrupt, destroy or influence an adversary, while protecting/defending own force information. Through the use of both textbooks and online resources, students will be introduced to such IO disciplines as Electronic Warfare (EW), Computer Network Attack (CNA), Psychological Operations (PSYOP), Military Deception (MILDEC), and Operations Security (OPSEC).

EW plays a key role in today's ever changing information driven battle space. This course provides a thorough introduction to EW, including basic radar theory, electronic attack (EA), electronic warfare support (ES), and electronic protect (EP) terms and concepts. IT IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED THAT YOU HAVE SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETED COLLEGE ALGEBRA BEFORE TAKING THIS COURSE

This course is a study of the evolution of intelligence and counterterrorism while analyzing U.S. and international policies for combating terrorism, terrorist tactics worldwide, and the scope of terrorism in the twenty-first century. The course focuses on the problems presented by terrorism to U.S. national security, suggested political solutions, and alternatives to the current counterterrorism policy.

After examining domestic, international and trans-national terrorism, with special focus upon their roots, this course will expose the student to a variety of new indications and warning methodologies and analytic tools, as well as academic, government, and policy literature on terrorism forecasting. The course will provide students with the analytic capability, coupled with the knowledge of past terrorists operations, to understand the types of terrorist threats that are most likely to confront the U.S. and its allies in the short-, mid-, and long-term.

Students in this course examine a top national intelligence priority, weapons of mass destruction, and some of the intelligence techniques used against them. Topics include scientific and technical intelligence and its emergence since World War II, sessions on each of the four dominant WMD (chemical warfare, biological warfare, nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles) and important issues related to monitoring and verification. Capabilities and outlook provided in the open literature will be employed to improve familiarity with issues and impact on national security strategies.

The Master’s Capstone Seminar option in Intelligence Studies includes a thesis or a major research paper in lieu of the final comprehensive examination, which has no credit hours. Those who elect this graduation option may reduce their electives by three semester hours to accommodate the seminar option credit. Students starting their degree program after 1 January 2009 must take INTL699 and complete a thesis based upon a list of available subjects. The thesis or major research paper options are recommended for those students who wish to apply their advanced research and analytic skills to a topic of U.S .or international security interest. The thesis option is recommended for those students planning professional writing careers or those planning to continue their education at higher levels.