Strengthening Intelligence Education with Information-Processing and Knowledge-Organization Competencies

Abstract

This paper studies the weaknesses of intelligence-education curriculum in the United States from a Library and Information Science perspective. Intelligence information processing is a separate step in the traditional intelligence cycle; however, information-processing competencies are often included in the intelligence collection and analysis competencies in the Intelligence Community. A study of the websites of the intelligence-education programs in the major 27 intelligence-education institutions in the United States reveals that information processing is often implicitly included in an intelligence analysis or collection course; and only three universities offer such courses that include information-processing components. Only one university has been found to offer courses that implicitly include components of the knowledge-organization competency. This paper recommends strengthening intelligence-education curriculum with information-processing and knowledge-organization competencies.