Conclusion: the development of critical intelligence studies

One key indicator of the vibrancy of Intelligence Studies as a field of academic enquiry over recent years has been the emergence of a discrete current of Critical Intelligence Studies (CIS). Debate as to what precisely CIS means, or the scope of what ‘Critical’ (or ‘critical’) denotes, continues but the articles collected together in this special issue represent a menu of opportunities connected by a desire to extend notional boundaries so as to better understand the phenomenon of intelligence and its various impacts. Within this, one notable contribution this volume makes to thinking about the nature of CIS and its relationship to the field more generally is in its emphasis on the benefits CIS approaches can offer to intelligence practice.