Handbook of Scientific Methods of Inquiry for Intelligence Analysis

Book excerpt: With the exponential growth in the intelligence field in the last few years, the profession has grown much larger and its mission more complex. Government and private sector security agencies have recruited intelligence analysts to process what has become a voluminous amount of raw information flowing into these agencies' data collection systems. Unfortunately, there is an unmet need for analysts who are able to process these data. For this reason there are a growing number of colleges and universities that offer intelligence training so that candidates for analyst positions can take-up their duties without protracted on-the-job instruction. Handbook of Scientific Methods of Inquiry for Intelligence Analysis offers students in such courses a way of gaining the analytic skills essential to undertake intelligence work. This book acquaints students and analysts with how intelligence fits into the larger research framework. It covers not only the essentials of applied research but also explains the function, structure, and operational methods specifically involved in intelligence work. It looks at how analysts work with classified information in a security conscious environment, as well as obtaining data via covert methods. Students are left with little doubt about what intelligence is and how it is developed using scientific methods of inquiry.