Description: This course aims to take advantage of the rich experience on the UT campus to provide undergraduates the opportunity to learn about US intelligence from a uniquely qualified ensemble of senior intelligence and policy practitioners and distinguished professors. The course will be sponsored by UT-Austin’s Intelligence Studies Project, and course activities will be closely coordinated with guest speakers invited to Austin and with other on-campus events organized by the Project.
Intelligence has been called “the hidden dimension” of statecraft. This course aims to demystify the role of intelligence in the making of national security policy. It will be structured to benefit all students interested in foreign affairs and national security policy, not merely those interested in an intelligence career. The course will address how intelligence fits into the U.S. national security apparatus; the components, activities, authorities, structure and evolution of the U.S. Intelligence Community and the laws and special authorities that authorize and constrain it; intelligence methods and collection techniques; U.S. intelligence agencies; how intelligence succeeds and fails; intelligence reform; covert action; moral and ethical issues; counterintelligence; the role of the policymaker; intelligence during crises; and cooperation with, and threats from, foreign intelligence services. Historical cases and current events will also be used to introduce writing and briefing styles and techniques used by intelligence professionals. Instruction will be selectively augmented by excerpts from films on intelligence.
Texts/Readings:
Intelligence: From Secrets to Policy, 6th edition, Mark Lowenthal. Additional readings will be available on Canvas. Students should expect 40-60 pages of reading per week. Students will read a book of their choice from a list provided by the instructors.
Assignments:
Mid-term exam: 30%; Book review: 20%; Final exam: 30%; Class participation (partially evaluated through Canvas Posts) and attendance 20%.
About the Instructor of Record: James “Paul” Pope is a Clinical Professor at the LBJ School and Senior Fellow of the Intelligence Studies Project, which is funded by the Clements and Strauss Centers. He retired from the CIA after multiple foreign tours, service as Chief of Station, and assignments as a Chief, Deputy Chief and Chief of Operations in three of the Directorate of Operations’ (DO's) largest components. Pope also served as an Associate Director of National Intelligence, Head of Delegation to NATO’s Civilian Intelligence Committee, DNI and DCIA representative to the Commander US Pacific Command, and Assistant National Intelligence Officer for the Near East and South Asia.
Full biographies of the other instructors are available on the web sites of the LBJ School, the Clements Center, Strauss Center, and Intelligence Studies Project.