Intelligence Studies: Independent Ontology, Dependent Methodology and Poor Theorizing

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Abstract

There has been always some unwillingness and refusal in the academic community of Iran and most other countries with respect to issues related to intelligence organizations. Defining the intelligence studies and studying its ontological and methodological status, this article seeks to identify its status as an academic field of study and emphasize the necessity of the intelligence studies in academic arena. The Main question of the article is: “What is the Intelligence Studies and where is its place among other Academic fields of studies? Considering characteristics of intelligence studies, the author believes in an independent ontology for this field of studies and argues that these studies may be said to be a subfield of political science and international relations. He also calls intelligence studies as a necessary, though unattended, factor in political and international understanding.

Keywords