ABSTRACT
Designing the educational curricula for undergraduate intelligence analysis programs is inherently difficult, as they entail highly complex, interwoven degree structures that integrate liberal arts knowledge with professional skills in novel combinations. Undergraduate intelligence analysis programs, specifically, have attracted increasing attention from institutions of higher learning due to their interdisciplinary approach to education combined with the utility and marketability of their graduates. But academic studies of intelligence education programs have not yet used the educational literature to create a conceptual baseline for evaluation purposes. Accordingly, this study uses concepts from existing educational literature to develop an evaluative framework for intelligence analysis programs in the United States and then applies that framework to James Madison University’s intelligence analysis program as a case study. It finds that challenges and tensions can arise from efforts to combine liberal arts with professional education, which highlight difficulties of achieving both simultaneously due to the tradeoffs involved. In the end, while each undergraduate intelligence analysis program provides its own unique blend of knowledge and skills to its students, the quality of the program will be determined by the depth and breadth of knowledge that the students acquire along with an overlay of useful skills to help them exploit that knowledge to best effect.
