Bachelor of Arts in Intelligence Studies

This course prepares students to employ basic research methods and writing skills to produce sound research papers and analytical products. Students will learn how to develop the elements of a research strategy, critically read and evaluate data, and communicate their findings in coherent, well-organized written work.

RECOMMENDED AS SECOND PROGRAM COURSE. This course surveys the U.S. Intelligence Community, with an emphasis on its current structure. Students review the members of the community and distinguish their key roles and missions. Students also assess the impact of the post-9/11 restructuring of the intelligence community.

RECOMMENDED AS THIRD PROGRAM COURSE. Explores the history of the development of the U.S. intelligence community and an assessment of its successes and failures in covert action, intelligence collection, and intelligence analysis activities from the American Revolution to today.

This course differentiates the basic elements of intelligence -- collection, analysis, dissemination, counterintelligence, and covert action -- through an understanding of the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) as well as through a review of past historical events in which intelligence has played a key role. Students will examine the difference between intelligence and information and extrapolate the various steps of the intelligence cycle, as well as their purpose. Students will review the “lessons learned” that have come out of U. S. intelligence successes and failures and specify the role of the Department of Homeland Security and resulting changes to the IC.

A multidisciplinary survey of Imagery Intelligence (IMINT), Signals Intelligence (SIGINT), Human Intelligence (HUMINT), and Measurement and Signature Intelligence (MASINT) is conducted. The background, capabilities, and limitations of each intelligence collection method are covered. The course focuses on planning activities which provide an integrated approach to intelligence collection.

Students comprehend the difficult legal and ethical issues in the intelligence community. The course examines the legal foundations and oversight mechanisms for the U.S. intelligence community. It also explores the major ethical problems confronting the intelligence profession.

Provides instruction in critical thinking and analysis skills meant to overcome cultural and psychological biases that can impact the objectivity of intelligence analysis and decision-making. Human information processing and problem solving are discussed from a psychological perspective, as well as psychological factors influencing the information processing of the individual analyst. Then critical thinking and analysis skills are covered, to include analysis of competing hypotheses, matrix analyses, decision/event trees, weighted rankings, and utility analysis, which are designed to improve the objectivity of intelligence analysis and decision making. (Prerequisite: INTL300).

Pre Reqs: Research Methods in Intelligence Studies(INTL300),Research, Analysis, and Writing(COLL300)

This course covers a selection of advanced qualitative analysis and modeling techniques for real world problems. Students begin with a review of analytical research skills and the process of Analysis of Competing Hypotheses (ACH). They will also learn to apply basic trend analysis techniques and forecasting methods such aggregate data analysis, content analysis, Rational Choice Theory, the Delphi technique, and the Lockwood Analytical Method for Prediction (LAMP). The course ends with a review of the NIE and analyst - policy maker relationships. (Prerequisite: INTL300).

Pre Reqs: Research Methods in Intelligence Studies(INTL300),Research, Analysis, and Writing(COLL300)

Students analyze China from historical, geographic, political, military and technological perspectives. China’s regional relationships with North Korea, Japan and Taiwan are assessed to determine regional dynamics. China’s internal and external policies with respect to the Internet are explored to include Cyber War and the “Great Firewall of China”(Prerequisite: INTL434).

Pre Reqs: Threat Analysis(INTL434)

Addresses the issues in and around the Korean Peninsula. Students make an in-depth examination of key differences between North and South Korea and their neighbors. This will be accomplished by examining historical, sociological, economic, geographic, political, and defense factors as they relate to current issues important to the Korean peninsula today. (Prerequisite: INTL434).

Pre Reqs: Threat Analysis(INTL434)

This course is a study of major national and international developments within East, Southeast, and South Asia, to include current key issues involving China, Japan, the two Koreas, Indonesia, Thailand, Pakistan, and India. This course focuses on issues in Asia that are important to the national security of the United States, particularly military, political, and economic issues. The course will also provide a close examination of U.S. relations with Asian nations. (Prerequisite - HIST300/HS334 for History and Military History majors only).

This course examines historical, cultural, economic, social and geographic traits that distinguish this region and shape its domestic political processes and interstate relations. Surveys the governments of selected countries to include China, Japan and Korea. Examines in particular the influence of Japan and China on regional and global affairs. Includes a survey of contemporary multilateral issues important to the region with emphasis on regional security concerns.

This course will provide students with an overview of the political, economic, diplomatic interactions between Asian countries as well as between Asian countries and the rest of the world.

This course will provide students with an overview of the intersection of politics and macroeconomics in Asia. The course focuses on the post-WWII era and contemporary events.

U.S. national security policy recognizes this element of the international security environment and anticipates that American involvement in Asia will likely increase over time, making alliances and relationships in this region even more important. This course will highlight the changes in these interests and the actions that these and other states in the region take to advance or, when necessary, defend them and, therefore influence U.S. national security strategy and policy as well as the forces that support them.

This course will introduce the student to the fundamentals of the Chinese language using an online immersion technique developed by RosettaStone. The student will learn basic vocabulary, verb conjugations, and grammatical usage through online listening, speaking, reading and writing exercises. The student will also learn about Chinese culture. This course must be completed prior to taking CHIN101.

This course will provide students with an overview of Asian cultures, by focusing on political, religious, and philosophical aspects of various Asian societies. The course identifies connections between the past and the present, with an eye on anticipating future trends

This course introduces students to Hindu religious life with the primary focus being on the examination of some key concepts (such as dharma, samsara, atman, maya, moksha, artha, monism, and pantheism), along with an attempt to have a firm grasp of the meaning of religious ideas, symbols, and practices, as related to the participants. Course topics include the disciplines (yogas) of devotion (bhakti), action (karma), knowledge (jnana), ethics, and the major schools of thought.

This course is a study of Buddhism's major historical movements and cultural expressions. Students examine the origin and development of the teachings, rituals and institutions of the Buddhist tradition in South Asia since the beginning of the common era to the present day. Course topics include the life and times of Siddhartha Gautama (“the Buddha”); implantation in East Asian societies of the various forms of Buddhism that developed in South Asia; development of new Buddhist “schools” in East Asia; relationships between Buddhism and the other religious traditions in East Asia; relationships between Buddhism and the State; early Buddhist community; popular Buddhist piety and social movements; development of the three main branches of the Buddhist tradition, and the role of women in Buddhism.

This course introduces the student to the relationships between intelligence and homeland security strategy. The course utilizes a historical case study approach, analyzing both past and contemporary national security issues from an intelligence perspective to highlight the increasingly important role intelligence has played and will play in the homeland security strategy process. The course presents the evolving relationship between intelligence and homeland security strategy during the 20th century, with particular emphasis on the Cold War because of the lessons to be learned from that period.

This course provides students with an introduction to counterintelligence operations and techniques. Students will study passive and active counterintelligence measures, principles and processes of counterintelligence operations, its relationship to covert action, and the legal and ethical issues involved. Through a series of practical exercises, students will develop a sound knowledge of the practice of counterintelligence.

This course provides students with an introduction to counterintelligence analysis of foreign intelligence entities. Students will learn and apply aspects of counterintelligence basic principles, concepts, core competencies, functions, and missions as outlined in the US National Counterintelligence Strategy. Students will be instructed in the analytical process, denial and deception identification, analytical techniques, threat profiling procedures, and analytical tools and databases.

During this course, students will study and analyze Counterintelligence, focusing on both U.S. and foreign counterintelligence, including the evolution of counterintelligence, perspectives on counterintelligence operations since World War II, principles of covert action and deception, and assessments of successes and failures of counterintelligence. You will be required to study a range of books and articles on this topic and will develop a comprehensive knowledge of counterintelligence, and how intelligence agencies in the United States use both offensive and defensive counterintelligence to guard and protect U.S. national security interests from adversaries. In addition, you will study how counterintelligence is collected and analyzed, and how social and technological changes affect counterintelligence.

This course differentiates the historical and contemporary patterns, modus operandi, capabilities, and vulnerabilities of organized crime organizations. Course content includes a review of the contemporary literature of South American, Mexican, Asian, European, & African criminal enterprises, traditional organized crime, outlaw motorcycle gangs, and transnational criminal enterprises.

This course studies the history of intelligence and espionage and reviews ancient espionage techniques, profiles famous agents throughout history, and focuses on such intelligence issues as SIGINT and HUMINT. The bulk of the course concentrates on 20th century intelligence, assessing changes in intelligence collection and priorities and analyzing how technological changes have affected intelligence collection.

This course will be an overview of Denial and Deception possibilities. It will review the history, concepts, and implications of Denial and Deception on national security decision making. It will also discuss foreign and domestic case studies, tradecraft, and the different methodologies associated with this form of intelligence training.

INTL 414 Intelligence and Assassination is a study of both the historical and contemporary use of assassination, with emphasis on assassination or targeted killing as a means to counter terrorism. In the historical portion, the course focuses on assassination as a means for gaining and maintaining power. In the latter portion, the course focuses on assassination as a means of overthrowing governments and to counter terrorism. In this latter portion the course evaluates the use of intelligence and special operations forces and the role they play in the state’s practice of assassination.

Investigates the history of covert action as a policy option for governments. Covert actions are those in which an operation may become known to the enemy or the world, but the responsible parties cannot be traced or proven. Current U.S. intelligence community and Special Forces capabilities and limitations for covert action are also covered.

The study of spies and their tradecraft. Through factual and fictional works the student will explore the geopolitical, ethical, constitutional, and bureaucratic implications of spycraft.

Examines the location, analysis of terrain, climate, natural resources, boundaries, transportation, communications, economic activities, and demographics of various nations and areas of the world.

This course examines Signals Intelligence also known by the acronym SIGINT. It covers the various methods and modes of collection, analysis and use of strategic and operational level communications (COMINT) and electronics (ELINT) intelligence. The course also reviews the security means available to protect friendly communications (COMSEC) and electronic emissions countermeasures (EECM).

This course provides an examination of how various unclassified materials, such as news services, databases, government documents, newspapers, journals, magazines, yearbooks, surveys, radio, TV, Internet, indexes, materials from various organizations, interviews, and country studies can be utilized as intelligence.

This course is an introduction to Human Intelligence (HUMINT). The course will define and examine HUMINT in context with the other intelligence collection disciplines. Through the use of focused discussion supported by directed readings and by applying critical thought to an incremental research project that requires a HUMINT solution, the student will understand the dynamics and functions of human source intelligence as a discipline.

This is a fundamental course focusing on intelligence interrogation from a conceptual perspective which will provide students with the tools to develop an overall understanding of interrogation and practical interrogation concepts as they can be applied to intelligence interrogation.   The course focus will address legal issues, verbal and non-verbal behavior, interrogator and subjects, environmental and cultural issues, coercive practices, as well as current events as they apply to the concepts of intelligence interrogation.

Explores the capabilities and limitations of imagery intelligence collection platforms, the processing and interpretation of the imagery product, and the contributions of imagery intelligence to the all source intelligence effort. Students also learn the resources, bureaucracies, and processes associated with the U.S. government imagery system.

Intelligence data forms the foundation of all intelligence analytic processes and products. The course explores the use of data-driven structured intelligence analysis techniques including statistical analysis, the appropriate use of data in analysis, the role of hypotheses, and non-statistical data analysis methods. This course develops competencies in understanding, applying, and effectively using data collected for intelligence analysis purposes and as such forms an essential component of becoming an effective intelligence analyst Students must have access to MS Excel.(Prerequisite: INTL300).

Pre Reqs: Research Methods in Intelligence Studies(INTL300),Research, Analysis, and Writing(COLL300)

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 provides the student with an introduction to the methods and techniques of criminal intelligence analysis and strategic organized crime. It will demonstrate how to predict trends, weaknesses, capabilities, intentions, changes, and warnings needed to dismantle criminal organizations. Law enforcement professionals at the federal, state, and local level, criminal intelligence analysts working in private industry, and military intelligence personnel making a transition from a military to a law enforcement career will benefit from this course. Students will be introduced to techniques such as association and link analysis, visual investigative analysis (VIA), telephone toll analysis, matrix analysis, reporting and application to violent crime, and organized crime to include drug, white collar, and money laundering. This course emphasizes criminal intelligence as opposed to criminal investigation.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) contain a powerful set of tools for data acquisition, management, query and display. This course will provide students first with a substantial foundation in the history of cartography and mapmaking. The second major emphasis of this course will merge both theoretical and historical information with hands-on practical training utilizing the basic tools provided with the GIS software. Students will become familiar with the importance of metadata, editing and updating metadata and how this is important to the success or failure of the dataset as a whole.(Prerequisite: INTL300).

Pre Reqs: Research Methods in Intelligence Studies(INTL300)

Using the ArcGIS software, students will be taught how to manipulate datasets based on complex queries in several advanced platforms within the GIS environment including geospatial analyses, creating basic models, interpolation among multiple data points, and advanced data table editing and creation. Students will learn methodologies for determining the presence or absence of patterns and identify associations among different data layers. Additionally, students will be taught to examine cases where GIS could have been used but was not, and postulate how this system could have improved analysis within each case. This course will focus on vector data analysis techniques only. (Prerequisite: IS418 Geographic Information Systems I. (Prerequisite: INTL432).

Pre Reqs: Geographic Information Systems I(INTL432)

With states as the level of analysis, this course examines their political, economic, and social condition which allows an understanding of threats to the state and their vulnerabilities. Analytic procedures to assess a state’s military capabilities, strengths and weaknesses of their political and economic systems, and challenges presented by their social systems are included. This course is a prerequisite to any of the intelligence studies country analysis courses.

This course provides an overview of cyber warfare and the potential impact of its use by military, terrorist, and criminal organizations. By studying the operation of computer networks, the student will gain an appreciation of how they have both benefited society and made portions of its infrastructure more vulnerable. An overview of cyber weaponry will be presented, and various offensive and defensive strategies will be examined via case studies

Examines the current structures, functions, capabilities, and contributions of U.S. military forces and decision-makers as primary consumers of national intelligence, to include the US executive branch, military services, and joint/unified commands. U.S. joint operational planning procedures are also covered as students are introduced to the Joint Strategic Planning System and Joint Operational Planning and Execution System.

During this course, students apply tactical intelligence theory and practice in support of ground operations. The impact of terrain and weather on tactics, employment of multi-discipline intelligence collections (imagery, signal intelligence, human intelligence, etc.), and principles of tactical intelligence analysis form the core of the course. Students also develop an appreciation for the limits of process in applying the art of intelligence to deal with tactical problems.

This course compares the history and methods of foreign intelligence organizations which have played (and continue to play) a significant role in U.S. strategic intelligence, foreign policy, and national security strategy planning. The student will become familiar with their methods for conducting intelligence and counterintelligence in both the political and military realms, with the objective of discovering the similarities and differences among them, and also for evaluating their overall relative effectiveness.

This course is a comparative investigation of how intelligence supported U.S. national security policy during times of crisis and how the crises impacted on the intelligence community. The first part of the course focuses on the Cuban Missile Crisis and the role intelligence played in the outcome. Students will compare and contrast intelligence support to the Cuban Missile Crisis with another foreign policy crisis. The second part of the course focuses on the 9/11 Commission’s recommendations for reforming the intelligence community in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. Students will compare and contrast the 9/11 Recommendations with the Intelligence Reform act passed by Congress.

This course will focus on a variety of aspects related to the U.S. war on drugs, including historical perspectives on counter-narcotics, U.S. policy and strategy, regional overviews, and intergovernmental relationships and liaisons with various agencies. The student will compare and contrast foreign views on counter narcotics with U.S. perspectives, will study the issues of foreign market analysis on narcotics, discuss the pros and cons of the war on drugs, and will also review the connection between the war on drugs and the war on terrorism. During the course, the student will develop a comprehensive understanding of how the U.S. views the war on drugs, how various policies affect outcomes of the war on drugs, strengths and weaknesses in policy and strategies, regional issues of counter-narcotics, and alternative solutions to the war on drugs.

This course examines terrorism as a social and political instrument from past to present. Topics include comparing insurgencies and terrorism, the paths to radicalization, the roots of extreme Islam, U.S. domestic terrorism issues, counter terrorism, national & domestic intelligence resources employed against terrorism, and a review of U.S. National Security Policy regarding terrorism.

This course assesses the impact of terrorism on U.S. national security. It focuses on a variety of aspects related to U.S. policy on terrorism, the threat of terrorism to U.S. national security, and the problems inherent to U.S. counterterrorism. The student will develop a comprehensive understanding of how the U.S. views terrorism, how various policies affect outcomes of counterterrorism, strengths and weaknesses in policy and strategies, threats to U.S. national security, and suggestions for solutions to these threats.

Modern criminal business, to include drug trafficking, trafficking in people or weapons, gold and precious gem smuggling, and even terrorism are reliant on how such activities are funded. Without some form of funding, illicit actors and illicit behaviors would have difficulty existing. This course will explore the shadowy world of illicit finance, from money laundering to Hawalas, to fraud, trade, and corruption used to fund illicit actions.

This course examines the processes involved in forecasting terrorism. The syllabus examines the theoretical underpinnings of the phenomenon of terrorism, actual and planned cases of chemical and biological weapons use, and the modern threat of improvised weapons of mass destruction. It continues by differentiating the varying magnitudes of threat and effect of chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and high yield explosive (CBRNE) weapons and analyzes terrorist precedent, strategy, and psychology from which terrorism forecasts and counter-terrorism activities are generated. It moves on to examine traditional and newer methods of forecasting terrorism: intuition-based, profiling, conflict vulnerability analysis and prognosis (early warning), Atypical Signal Analysis & Processing (ASAP), and the Khalsa systematic Indications and Warning (I&W) methodologies. It concludes with a brief overview of the state of the terrorist threat almost a decade after 9/11

Explores the development of the future Iraqi state. Students first study Iraqi history through the 2003 fall of Saddam Hussein. The role of ethnic and religious rivalries is covered in-depth. Post-2003 stability and development activities are also investigated. (Prerequisite: INTL434).

Pre Reqs: Threat Analysis(INTL434)

Students investigate the growing role of Iran as a Middle East Power. A study of Iranian history through the 1979 Revolution is conducted. An in-depth analysis of post-revolution development is then made to determine Iran’s military, economic, and social strengths and weaknesses. A central focus is on the development of Iran’s nuclear programs. (Prerequisite: INTL434).

Pre Reqs: Threat Analysis(INTL434)

This course will be an overview of the Afghanistan and Pakistan area of operations specifically relating to the difficulties of intelligence gathering and analysis. It will review the history of the area and how it relates to the War on Terrorism, intelligence concepts, and implications of the use of intelligence on national security decision making within the area. It will also discuss foreign influences and case studies, tradecraft, and the different methodologies associated with the use of intelligence in this area of the world.

This course is an introduction to historic and contemporary terrorist groups and their motives and strategies. The psychological and social impact on individuals, communities and global societies of the achievement of terrorist goals as well as recruitment methods, the influence terrorist groups exert on their members and factors influencing the establishment and dissolution of terrorist groups will be examined.

This course is designed to provide a solid foundation for undergraduate study in the online environment. Students will be introduced to learning theory, the tools available in the online classroom and campus, and online research. Identification of personal learning style allows students to improve their study/learning techniques and prepares them to succeed in college level courses. Students will be introduced to formatting and citation styles. APUS policy and procedure is addressed. There is an emphasis on written communication to assist students in the transition to the online environment.

The Senior Seminar in Intelligence Studies is required for all majors. This capstone experience for Intelligence Studies majors will review and integrate their academic coursework, strengthen their understanding of intelligence research methodologies, and relate their academic preparation to their post graduation goals. Students will conduct original research and present their findings to the class in written and e-portfolio formats. Student must have SENIOR standing to register.