Admission requirements
This course is part of the minor Intelligence Studies. This is the only course within the minor that is also open to students who do not follow the entire minor, for example Exchange Students and Study Abroad Students. Registration in uSis is mandatory. There are 250 places open for registration, on a first come first serve basis, where minor students are given priority.
Description
This course offers an introduction to intelligence studies by examining how intelligence is produced, used, and contested in international politics. It covers the intelligence cycle, including requirements, collection disciplines (such as HUMINT, SIGINT, OSINT, and GEOINT), analysis, and dissemination. The course also explores the inherent limits of what intelligence agencies can actually know and why their pictures are never complete.
Students will analyze how technologies such as AI are transforming intelligence activities, creating both new opportunities and new risks. The course also addresses the political and ethical dimensions of intelligence, including secret influence, covert action, and the role of intelligence in war, and efforts to monitor the spread of weapons of mass destruction.
Through historical and contemporary examples, the course engages with ongoing debates about secrecy, accountability, and democratic oversight. By the end, students will be able to think critically about intelligence as both a powerful tool of state power and a persistent source of political, ethical, and strategic tension.
Course objectives
After completing this course, you will be able to:
1. Explain and evaluate the intelligence process, including intelligence requirements, collection, analysis, and dissemination, and assess how uncertainty, bias, and organizational constraints shape intelligence outcomes.
2. Analyse the role of intelligence in international politics and conflict, including how states use intelligence as an instrument of power in diplomacy, war and arms control.
3. Critically assess covert action and explain why actors choose covert over overt means, how deniability operates, and what strategic costs and benefits such actions entail.
4. Critically discuss normative, legal, and ethical challenges in Intelligence Studies, including secrecy, oversight, accountability, democratic control, and the tension between effectiveness and civil liberties in liberal democracies.
Timetable
On the right side of the programme front page you will find links to the website and timetables, uSis and Brightspace.
Mode of instruction
7 lectures of 3 hours by instructors and guest lecturers.
Assessment method
Final exam
100% of total grade
Grade must be 5.50 or higher to pass the course
Resit possible
The Course and Examination Regulation Security Studies and the Rules and Regulation of the Board of Examiners of the Institute of Security and Global Affairs apply.
Resit, review & feedback
The resit exam will be held in January 2027 and will follow the same format as the original test. After the exam, you can look over your exam and see your score, and you will have the chance to request an exam‑review meeting. Details about how to schedule that review session will be posted on Brightspace.
Reading list
TBA on Brightspace with course syllabus. Interested students might choose to read Mark Lowenthal’s book Intelligence: from secrets to policy.
Registration
Registration via MyStudymap is possible from Tuesday 14 July 2026 13:00h after registration for the entire minor. Register for every course via MyStudymap. Some courses of the minor have a limited number of participants, so register on time. Registration for the exam is mandatory.
Leiden University uses Brightspace as its online learning management system. After enrolment for the course in MyStudymap you will be automatically enrolled in the Brightspace environment of this course.
More information on registration via MyStudymap can be found on this page.
Please note 1: Registration for the resit of an exam is mandatory, this has to be done by the student and can be done from TBA until 10 days before the exam. Until 5 days before the exam you can email OSC and fill in a form.
Please note 2: guest-/contract-/exchange students do not register via MyStudymap but via uSis. Registration via uSis is possible from Thursday 16 July 2026 after registration for the entire minor.
Contact
For substantive questions, contact the lecturers (listed in the right information bar). For questions about enrolment, admission, etc., contact the Education Administration Office: osc.fgga@fgga.leidenuniv.nl
Remarks
All sessions will be in English. Exams and assignments need to be written in English.