This optional course provides students with an understanding of the role of intelligence in contemporary decision-making, with a particular focus on Europe and the European Union (EU). Students will receive training in analytic tradecraft and relevant techniques for the production of anticipatory, strategic and current intelligence. Through a combination of lectures, case study analyses, and active learning methods such as simulation exercises and gaming, students will be able to understand and apply a set of processes and techniques to elaborate a portfolio of analytic products from open-source information in support of EU external action. Students will learn about information sources and information evaluation, structured analysis and other analytic approaches for the production of intelligence, the role of heuristics and cognitive biases, and how to mitigate them, how intelligence analysis deals with disinformation and deception, and how to communicate analytic confidence and uncertainty in assessments to policymakers. The course emphasizes the particularities of team-working in intelligence analysis projects in the context of a multilateral environment such as the European Union. Finally, the course will reflect on technology, AI, and other drivers of change for the future of intelligence analysis. The knowledge and skills acquired in this course are transferable to many fields in the public and private sector.
Professor: Rubén ARCOS