Intelligence and Security Studies MA

About the Course

Intelligence and security policy issues are now one of the fastest growing areas of academic and public concern, especially since '9/11' and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Today more than ever before national governments, international agencies and most major international corporations have an identified need for staff with a strong grasp of intelligence and security issues who can also demonstrate first-rate skills of research and assessment.

Taught by the internationally respected scholars of the Brunel Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies, backed up where required by practitioner expertise, the MA in Intelligence and Security Studies offers a unique opportunity for practical, policy-oriented graduate study of intelligence issues applicable across the private and public sectors around the world.

Aims

This course will be of value to individuals seeking to go into security-oriented careers in both the private sectors, as well as to individuals engaged in the security professions who seek further qualifications and professional enhancement.

A distinctive feature of the course lies in its combining the rigorous study of intelligence and security policy studies with practical opportunities to develop intelligence skills through case studies and simulation exercises dealing with intelligence analysis.

Enquiries

When you submit your application to PG Admissions, please send a photocopy of your completed form, under separate cover, to June Costard, Admissions and Marketing Office, School of Social Sciences at the address below so that we can track your application. All references must be written on headed paper and sent to the address below.

Course Enquiries

Helen Stevenson
Postgraduate Admissions & Marketing Administrator
Email socscipgenq@brunel.ac.uk
Tel +44 (0)1895 265952

June Costard
Postgraduate Programmes Office
Tel +44 (0)1895 265286

Application Enquiries (Home/EU)
For applications already submitted.
Email admissions@brunel.ac.uk
Tel +44 (0)1895 265265

Application Enquiries (International Students)
For general enquiries, including how to apply: Email brunelinternational@brunel.ac.uk
For applications already submitted: Email international-admissions@brunel.ac.uk.
Tel +44 (0)1895 265519

Visit the School of Social Sciences website 

Special Features

The Brunel Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies is Britain's first academic centre dedicated to intelligence scholarship and policy-analysis. It includes one of Britain's most innovative scholars in the field, Dr Philip H J Davies, as well as former CIA officer and noted scholar Dr Stephen Marrin.

Dr Kristian Gustafson, an expert on covert action and military intelligence doctrine, is the current director of the programme.

The former senior military imagery analyst, Geoff Oxlee, OBE, joined BCISS as an Honorary Fellow and completes the core team.

Together, these scholars not only produce important original research, published worldwide, but actively contribute to the success of government and business in the UK.

The Centre, though, is an inter-disciplinary endeavour, and includes participation from some of the leading Brunel University academics in the fields of cryptography, computer networking, imagery, economics and even law. Many of these experts already assist our teaching. As well, the centre benefits from the assistance, from time to time, of various officials of Her Majesty’s Government. MA/ISS, therefore, benefits from practitioner input and insight as well as instruction by leading international academics.

Course Content

The course is offered on either a full-time basis, taught over two terms and a dissertation during the summer, or part-time basis taught over four terms with the dissertation completed during the summer of the second academic year.

Four out of six course modules are taught on the basis of lectures, seminars and directed reading. The second term Case Studies course is a student-led seminar programme in which participants present detailed case study reports on major intelligence successes and failures.

The second term Analytical Simulation Exercise will involve students in a simulated joint, all-source intelligence assessment modelled on the actual joint assessment processes in the US and UK governments.

The dissertation will consist of a directed research project supervised by a member of the Brunel Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies.

Typical Modules (all core)

Intelligence concepts: theory and policy (30 credits)
Deals with the essential concepts and issues of what intelligence is and its role in government and decision-making. It introduces the basic concepts of intelligence studies, the various sources of intelligence available to national governments, and examines the analysis of those sources, sources of intelligence success and failure and intelligence needs in the contemporary environment.

The rise of the National Security State (15 credits)
Invites students to make a critical analysis of the power politics behind national security agencies and the intelligence community. Particular attention is paid to how the present system arose out of the security concerns at the very beginning of the Cold War.

Intelligence and Non-conventional Threats (15 credits)
This module is a survey of contemporary threats faced by the UK and all other modern liberal democracies. It discusses the changes wrought by new military technologies in the conduct of war, and the new civilian technologies which permit modern organised crime, drug trafficking, terrorism, and insurgency to pose a globalised, complex and integrated threat to our security, as well as a tricky foe for our domestic and foreign security structures.

Agency and community management (15 credits)
Introduces students to the application of issues and concepts from management and public administration to intelligence and security agencies. The course commences with management issues in individual agencies, then looks at the control of national intelligence communities, and then finishes with an examination of political control and accountability issues.

Case studies in intelligence, failure and success (15 credits)
This course is intended to introduce students to case study methods, and take them through a series of case studies of key intelligence successes and failures. Students undertake their own intensive case studies, and also learn to perform 'devil's advocate' or 'red team' assessments of those case studies.

Analytical Simulation Exercise (30 credits)
ASE is the jewel in the MA/ISS crown. It provides students with an opportunity to undertake a simulated intelligence analysis on a real-world subject. ASE is designed to emulate the interdepartmental assessment methods of the British Cabinet Office Joint Intelligence Committee, and gives students a chance to apply hands-on analytical principles and methods they have learned abstractly in the MA/ISS taught courses.

Dissertation (60 credits)
All students produce a supervised research dissertation of 15,000 - 20,000 words.

Assessment

Four out of six course modules are taught on the basis of lectures, seminars and directed reading. The second term Case Studies course is a student-led seminar programme in which participants present detailed case study reports on major intelligence successes and failures.

The second term Analytical Simulation Exercise will involve students in a simulated joint, all-source intelligence assessment modelled on the actual joint assessment processes in the US and UK governments.

Careers

The MA in Intelligence and Security Studies (MAISS) provides solid transferable skills in analysis and drafting, skills whose applicability cuts across a wide range of public and private pursuits. Our students have had great success in seeking employment once they have completed their course. Many have come from, and then continue to work for, government agencies in the UK and abroad — we have taught police, military, and other government officials from the United States, Canada, Switzerland, Finland, Norway, Belgium, Turkey, Japan, Jordan, the Philippines, Brunei, Thailand, Indonesia, Korea, Botswana and several other nations beside. 

Within the UK, students with no service experience have gone on to work for the British Security Service, the Metropolitan Police Counter-Terrorism Centres, the Serious Organised Crime Agency, and other departments of government. Many students have noted to us that the innovative studies they undertook on our programme were important topics of discussion in their interviews. Those already in Government employment have successfully used their MAs to leverage promotion or commissioning.

Students who have sought work in the private sector have likewise had success. Former MAISS students have gone to work for large banks conducting market analysis, to large oil-industry firms, to large consultancies such as McKinsey & Co, to specialist private analysis firms such as Olton. Indeed, Olton have had such success with our graduates that they have offered to fund a prize for the MAISS student who writes the best dissertation, annually.

Overall, MAISS students have had a strong record of success in the years after their degrees.

Fees for 2012/13 entry

Home/EU students: £5,060 full-time, £2,530 part-time

International students: £12,650 full-time, £6,325 part-time

Read about funding opportunities available to postgraduate students

Fees quoted are per annum and are subject to an annual increase.

Entry Requirements for 2012 Entry

You should normally have a good honours degree (2.1 or above) or an equivalent professional qualification. Applicants with substantial work experience in a relevant area will also be considered, purely on a case by case basis. All applicants to the course will be interviewed (by phone for overseas applicants if required).

Entry Requirements for 2011 Entry (click to expand)

English Language Requirements

• IELTS: 6.5 (min 6 in all areas)
• TOEFL Paper test: 580 (TWE 4.5)
• TOEFL Internet test: 92 (R20, L20, S20, W20)
• Pearson: 59 (51 in all subscores)

Brunel also offers our own BrunELT English Test and accept a range of other language courses. We also have a range of Pre-sessional English language courses, for students who do not meet these requirements, or who wish to improve their English.