West Virginia University

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Areas of Emphasis – Intelligence and National Security

This area of emphasis is designed for students with specific interests in careers in intelligence analysis with national security agencies (e.g., the CIA or the military) or elsewhere in the policy community. At the core of this area of emphasis are four courses specifically focused on intelligence and national security. Two are intelligence courses with a strong “research analyst” component and are taught by adjunct faculty from the intelligence community. These courses consider how intelligence analysts approach national security problems as well as the current methodologies they use to gather and analyze intelligence on international situations. The other two core courses are foreign policy analysis courses. Both are political science courses that apply foreign policy theories to policy questions in national security analysis. These courses encompass topics on both decision making within the U.S. government and the assessment of the goals and motives of states that the U.S. encounters in international conflicts. Because of the value of foreign language skills to careers in the intelligence community, this area of emphasis also requires a year of advanced foreign language. Professional internships within the intelligence community are encouraged as part of the capstone experience in this area of emphasis.

Course List

Required policy analysis courses (18 hours):

Select 12 hours from the following analytic courses (at least 2 disciplines):

Select 12 hours from the following cross-cultural courses (at least two disciplines):