National Intelligence College publications advance intelligence scholarship, academic inquiry, and professional dialogue across the Intelligence Community.
Since its founding in 1996, the former NIU established itself as a major source for the IC of intelligence scholarship blended with academic insights. Our publications have become mainstays in IC classrooms and serve as indispensable tools for analysts, collectors, and others seeking new outlooks and better ways to accomplish the intelligence mission.
Publications were published work of faculty, research fellows, students, and IC professionals. Authors were encouraged to introduce new perspectives on topics of critical interest to the IC and, more broadly, the US Government.
Books published underwent peer review by colleagues in the US Government, as well as from civilian academic, nonprofit, or business communities. Authors of publications enjoyed full academic freedom, provided they did not disclose classified information, jeopardize operations security, or misrepresent official US policy. Such academic freedom empowered authors to offer new and sometimes controversial perspectives in the interest of furthering debate on key issues.
Publications were approved for unrestricted distribution by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s prepublication review. The views expressed in each publication were those of the author and did not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any US Government agency.
Research monographs provide extended analysis on intelligence, national security, technology, strategy, and policy topics for professional and academic audiences.
A. Taylor, Research Fellow, NIU
As the US Intelligence Community surges to address evolving exigencies, its workforce may need to rely on even higher levels of intercultural flexing to drive collaboration with varied foreign intelligence partners.
Avshalom Rubin, Research Fellow, NIU
Israel’s prospective integration into Middle East economic networks—especially energy—prompted a backlash from Iran, Turkey, Russia, and China and emboldened Hamas to initiate war.
Dennis King, US Department of State
Improving the analysis and intelligence techniques that inform humanitarian response, programming, and policy decision making can save lives and reduce human suffering.
CDR Kelly Tongol, US Coast Guard
Research on Intelligence Community workforce behaviors has long overlooked the potential influence of risk propensity in IC professionals.
Johnathan Proctor, JS J2
While warning has been written about for decades, surprisingly little consensus exists within the Intelligence Community about how to define and describe it.
Amy Sturm
US counterterrorism operations have prevented another attack on the scale of 9/11, but questions remain about whether they have been truly effective.
Stephen Hood, Ph.D.
People have a love-hate relationship with artificial intelligence agents that must be addressed to successfully implement human-AI teams.
Adrian Wolfberg, Ph.D.
Many voices have expressed their concerns about the state of artificial intelligence and machine learning in the US Intelligence Community.
A monograph focused on the everyday work of intelligence analysts who solve real-world novel problems.
Maj Richard Uber, PhD, USAF
Artificial intelligence is one of many emerging technologies at the heart of economic and military competition between the United States and the People’s Republic of China.
Research Shorts and Notes are brief publications that provide timely analysis, commentary, and professional insight on current intelligence and national security topics.
David W. Shin, Ph.D.
China’s cognitive warfare is a central element of its strategy, designed to achieve national rejuvenation, manage escalation, and gain advantage without armed conflict.
K. Smith, A. Bedell, C. Bonney, T. McAndrews, and J. Borek
Data availability and reliability are key to understanding environmental and human security challenges, but language barriers, people’s reticence to speak out, and media repression can limit data collection.
Matthew Tompkins
Renewed focus on US homeland security is revitalizing expectations for the Intelligence Community to share information with domestic partners.
A. Taylor
Intelligence work inherently requires exceptional intercultural competence to understand adversaries and foster collaboration with partners and assets to address threats.
Avshalom Rubin
The Iranian-led Axis of Resistance failed to disrupt global energy markets during the Israel-Hamas war but won at least a temporary victory in its struggle to prevent Israel from becoming a regional trade and energy hub.
Josh Kerbel
The IC is hampered by an organizational culture deficient in introspection. To deliver robust intelligence support—regarding China and the full range of issues the IC addresses—we must get past our long-held tendency.
In 1990, the world was on the cusp of a major transformation. The bifurcated, static, high-control, and hierarchical Cold War era was giving way to something new.
LTC Amanda C. Current
A focused research short examining whether and how academic theory influences U.S. cyber strategy implementation.
Lorie Roule
A continually shifting landscape of new challenges, technologies, and adversaries complicates the IC’s core mission of protecting national security.
Deb Pfaff, Ph.D., and Trisha Ripley
Substantial public safety benefits derive from declassifying information related to private sector security.
Jeffrey M. Bishop
As ODNI grades analytic products for rigor and excellence, it also collects and shares best practices in the use of the IC Analytic Standards.
Frederic Baron
For more than a half-century, government leaders, intelligence practitioners, and scholars have sought to define and redefine intelligence in the national security sense.
LtCol Jake Sotiriadis, Ph.D.
Today’s political leaders are using military force as a go-to solution for geopolitical disputes in Ukraine, Gaza, and beyond.
LtCol Gary J. Sampson, USMC
China’s leaders apparently see their partnership-focused foreign policy strategy as adequate, but that view may not hold indefinitely.
Johnathan Proctor
This Research Short looks to reignite debate on how the IC defines warning and several terms associated with it in the context of intelligence.
The IC requires the utmost capability to meet increasingly complex national security threats. Having sufficient foreign language-qualified personnel should be the least of its worries.
Darin Warner and David Blauvelt, Ph.D.
Informal communities of practice already help analysts collaborate across the IC, and their expertise is often levied against threats that do not fit neatly into existing organizations.
Mark M. Bailey, Ph.D.
State-of-the-art artificial intelligence systems are almost certain to transform how the IC executes its mission, but the risks require careful mitigation.
Debora Pfaff, Ph.D.
Most Americans experience the Intelligence Community through works of fiction—stories told on the silver screen, in powerful prose, and through conspiratorial overtures.
Amber Cleland, Cody Herr, Jason Roe, Sean Steigerwalt, Zachary Wales
US intelligence analysts sometimes mirror-image their own sense of time—how they relate to the past, present, and future—onto actors of national security interest.
Policymakers call upon intelligence analysts to deliver insightful assessments, yet consistent success has faltered due to a lack of understanding.
Dr. Janice Hinton and Dr. Phuong Hoang
Asia watchers have been exploring what lessons Taiwan might take from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to bolster Taipei’s ability to deter or defend against a Chinese attack.
Thomas Ewing
The war in Ukraine has seen nonstate actors, including private corporations and NGOs, assume a prominent role collecting, producing, and distributing intelligence.
MAJ Alex Oliver (NIU MSSI 2020) and Dr. Adam Jungdahl
The prevailing narrative among observers in academic, policy, and intelligence circles is that China’s effort to expand its international influence through aggressive measures is growing.
Debora Pfaff, Ph.D. and Bowman Miller, Ph.D.
National security is the U.S. Government’s most basic responsibility, laid out in the Constitution’s preamble: provide for the common defense.
Dr. Stacey Pollard, Henry Baraket, Girish Ganesan, and Natalie Kim
One year after U.S.-led coalition operations liberated ISIS-held territories in Iraq and Syria and killed ISIS core leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, ISIS is resurging.
Dr. Phuong Hoang and Dr. Janice Hinton
Taiwan’s success in containing coronavirus infections gave Taipei a rare opportunity to strengthen its international standing and self-determination narrative.
Josh Kerbel and LTC Tom Pike, Ph.D.
Complexity theory reveals a nation is not just a people with a government: it arises from competition and the compromises that shape policy development.
Books published by the NIC Press support intelligence education and professional development through peer-reviewed scholarship and practitioner-focused research.
Hasenjager, Bailey, and Fefferman
James Marchio
Kevin P. Riehle
Stacey E. Pollard and Lawrence A. Kuznar
John A. Gentry and William M. Nolte
John P. Caves, Jr. and W. Seth Carus
Russell G. Swenson and Carolina Sancho Hirane
CAPT Erich M. Telfer, USCG