This means you will choose a topic that is focused on intelligence (or be intelligence related and you explain how it is important to intelligence), identify your research sources, identify and apply a research method to your paper, and draft a paper that defends your main point/thesis. As you’ve learned across the program, the field of intelligence studies is an interdisciplinary in that it incorporates elements important to economics, business, psychology, international relations, political science, criminal justice, security studies and more. The term “intelligence” can refer to both a product as well as a process, and a topic that is important to “intelligence” would be something that supports a particular requirement or mission. For example, “competitive” intelligence is often something that’s carried out to support the mission of businesses, whereas “sociocultural intelligence” focuses on understanding social and cultural principles of target areas in a manner to achieve the goals of a particular mission. Executive Order 12333 on United States Intelligence Activities further explains that the goals of United States intelligence in its official government capacity is geared towards assisting leaders make decisions specific to foreign, defense, and economic policies and the protection of the US national interest. However, it’s also important to keep in mind is that “intelligence” is also not limited to the confines of United States intelligence or the United States intelligence community for that matter – the world is MUCH bigger than that. Topic: You must choose a topic from your area of concentration (mine is Geospatial Intelligence/Imagery intelligence) which is important to intelligence studies.