This course provides students an introduction to United States national security policy and the role of the intelligence community. Current and historical case studies will highlight the functions and limits of intelligence activities in support of decision makers policy making and implementation. In this course we survey political, institutional, and cultural challenges confronting analysts as they strive to provide intelligence products relevant to strategic and tactical policy goals.

In this class students explore the differences between academic research and intelligence analysis. We will explore research design and how to select a research approach based on intelligence requirements. You will learn about the ethical conduct of social science research. Building on the framework of intelligence requirements you will learn how to define a research problem and develop related research questions, hypothesis, and design research using appropriate methods.

Students in this course will investigate the cognitive science behind writing and intelligence analysis. Topics include heuristics and chunking, speaking and writing, writing schemes, creativity, analytical writing, organization, presentation, collaboration, editing, case studies, presenting technical information, and decision-maker feedback. Case studies on the psychology of political behavior are presented.

In this course students will develop a data science tool kit they may use to investigate research questions. The methodological approaches students will be exposed to include linear regression, classification, resampling methods, linear model selection, tree-based methods, unsupervised learning, and network analysis. Ethical approaches to the use of data science are reviewed in this class.