Intelligence Education for the Future: What Kind of Future is the Scandinavian Intelligence Community Prepared For?

This chapter investigates what kind of future is envisioned in today’s teaching on intelligence in Scandinavia. By studying how intelligence is taught at universities and colleges in Scandinavia, the chapter displays how the curriculums entail assumptions about our future geopolitical reality, about the nature of new and old threats and about the methods necessary to combat future threats. The starting point is twofold: Today’s threat picture is characterized by numerous different threats and risks which are highly uncertain and complex. Additionally, within the past 10–20 years we have seen an increasing need for engaging and responsibilizing civil society in intelligence work. The first part of the analysis reveals how most teaching on intelligence activities in Scandinavia prepares students for a future which is quite the opposite of complex and uncertain: namely a knowable and controllable future. In the second part, the chapter shows how the future is largely portrayed in the image of an Anglo-American past by drawing heavily on mainstream Anglo-American history of intelligence failures. The Anglo-American intelligence literature leaves out the particularities of local and national cultures. Hence, the chapter evaluates the state of Scandinavian intelligence education and discusses the possibilities for future intelligence education.