Course Syllabus

Using a hands-on approach, you learn how intelligence analysis works. Dealing with threats of terrorists from Al-Qaeda, ISIL, and European right-wing extremists, this course teaches you the essentials of analyzing, writing, and delivering intelligence briefings. Through well-crafted simulations and studies of present-day threats, the course offers a broad introduction to the methodology of intelligence analysis as well as an opportunity to try it out yourself. Through workshops, we apply intelligence analysis to both fictitious and primary source material. The course teaches you how to analyze complicated and often incomplete data and present it – skills useful for any career inside or outside the intelligence community.

By the end of the semester, all students will:

• Understand the principles of how intelligence organisations work
• Understand how to understand and describe threats from terrorist organisations
• Know different approaches to analyzing sources and working with intelligence

Søren Hove, Ph.D.

Søren Hove (Ph.D in Middle East Studies, 2009) is working as a Chief Consultant at the Danish Defense and has been research fellow at the Centre for Contemporary Middle East Studies (University of Southern Denmark) and the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS, Copenhagen). Søren has expertise in the terrorism and Islamist militancy in the Middle East. With DIS since 2011.

Nis L. Mathiesen, MA

Cand.Mag. (MA) in Rhetoric (University of Copenhagen, 2006), MA in Intelligence and International Security (King's College London, 2005). Nis has been working as a Chief Analyst with the private intelligence company Risk Intelligence, specializing in maritime security. Currently working as a senior consultant at the Royal Danish Defence College. With DIS since 2007.

All readings are listed under each class in the Canvas-calendar and are available in full text under files in Canvas.

An example of the readings for the first 3-4 classes:

UNODC (2011): Criminal Intelligence - Manual for Analysts, UN, Vienna. Chapter 1, pp. 1-8

Lowenthal, Mark (2017): Intelligence. From Secrets to Policy 7 ed., Sage, London. Chapter 4, pp. 73-90

Levitt, Matthew & Zelin, Aaron (2022): What Zawahiri’s Death Means for al-Qaeda and Its Branches, PolicyWatch 3636, Washington Institute for Near East Study.

Snowdon, Edward (2019): “Permanent Record”, Chapter 8 12/11,

Hayden, Michael (2016): “Playing to the Edge”, Chapter 3,

Zegart, Amy (2019): “In the Deepfake Era, Counterterrorism Is Harder” The Atlantic,

Gladwell, Malcolm (2007) "Open secrets" The New Yorker

Bergen, Peter (2011): “The longest war”, chapter 1+ 2.

Schum, David A., Tecuci, Gheorghe et al (2016): Intelligence Analysis as discovery of evidence, hypotheses, and arguments: Connecting the Dots, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2016, pp. 59-68

Pherson, Katherine H. and Pherson, Randolph H.(2016): Critical Thinking for Strategic Intelligence, Sage, Los Angeles, pp. 13-18  and pp.121-127

Clark, Robert M (2017).: Intelligence Analysis. A Target-Centric Approach, 5 ed., Thousand Oaks, CQ Press 2017, pp. 47-60

An example ofthe readings for the class on Accessing the threat (analysis of primary sources):

Osama bin Laden (1994)+(1996)+(1998) 

Silber, Mitchell D. (2012) ”The al-Qaeda Factor” University of Pensylvania Press, Introduction + Conclusion (canvas).

AQAP (2010) - Inspire Magazine

It is expected that all students actively participate in class: do the reading for each class; share thoughts and ask questions for the instructor and other students; actively and responsibly participate in their project groups.

Please notice that some classes will be held on Friday afternoons - that's tough!

Students will be evaluated as follows: