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In my research for a chapter in the forthcoming "Oxford Handbook of Women in Intelligence", I'm interviewing women from around the globe with operational experience in all sectors of the business of intelligence. These women have been trained to develop and live a cover that is close enough to their true selves, but far enough to remain objective and mission-focused. They identify potential targets for recruitment, make friends to elicit information, and try to survive office

I wrote my   book chapter   "Professionalisation of Intelligence in Africa" about 18 months ago. Since then, global developments have made its message relevant far beyond Africa, especially for intelligence agencies and private-sector teams that provide decision support in high stakes democratic contexts.   For decades, Western intelligence communities (and academia) have debated whether intelligence meets the sociological criteria of a "profession". My verdict?   It doesn’t

Before AI, the "lazy" intelligence analysts just copied and pasted from whatever combination of OSINT they could find on their topic. In contrast, the "serious" analysts mulled over veracity, nuances, purpose, client preference, framing, SAT's and visualization.  Depending on urgency, client appetite, and expectations, the "in-betweeners" are chameleoned between the two modes. If your clients did not care about how you got to your key judgments, you produced for production an

A quick question to my practitioners' network out there: " What do you wish universities would do to make Intelligence and Security...