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.