Curriculum

As one of FIU’s Premier Academic/Workforce Development programs, our IC-CAE Intelligence Fellowship Program builds upon students’ prior education and experience and strengthens core competencies in national security enterprise and cyber threat intelligence. Every course is taught by current or former practitioners from the Intelligence Community with decades of experience. Students enrolled in the undergraduate courses as part of the Intelligence Analysis Track will receive an Undergraduate Certificate in National Security Studies. Students enrolled in the undergraduate courses as part of the Cyber Threat Intelligence Track will receive an Undergraduate Certificate in Cybersecurity Intelligence and Information Policy Certificate.

Intelligence Analysis Track

  • Summer B: INR 3133 - Intelligence & National Security
    This course aims to discuss the role of intelligence in U.S. national security, focusing on the role of the intelligence community and U.S. policymakers’ use of intelligence. The course will explore the tension between the intelligence community’s mission to inform and predict with policymaker’s mission to legislate. 
  • Summer B: ISS 4364 - Introduction to Structured Analytical Methods
    This dynamic course introduces students to critical thinking fundamentals, cognitive biases and how to avoid them, formulating hypotheses, and structured analytical techniques used in the private sector, academia, and government agencies. The course uses reading assignments to introduce cognitive processes, historical national security challenges, developing decision aids, and analytic topics.
  • Fall: INR 3134 - Writing for Intelligence and National Security
    This course examines the various types of intelligence analysis, such as leadership, economic, military, political, and humanitarian as a framework to examine current intelligence, foundational intelligence, and estimative intelligence. Additionally, students are exposed to writing analytic assessments that include forecasting and situational uncertainty that is quite common in the national security arena.
  • Fall: ISS 3222 - Special Topics in Foreign Policy: History of Intelligence
    This course serves as a survey of the major Intelligence Services of the world, east and west, and of their origins in military and civil society. Students learn about the history of the Intelligence Community and emerging technology.  
  • Spring: ISS 3940 - Public Policy Internship
    This course will serve as a research avenue for students to work on and finalize their Intelligence Assessment Research Products and brief it at various venues to Intelligence Community Practitioners and Industry Professionals.
  • Spring: ISS 3214 - Fundamentals of Globalization: Foreign Intelligence Systems
    This course provides students with an introduction to intelligence systems as an academic subject. The course will include a comparative treatment of several Western and Non-Western Intelligence Systems focusing on the historical, institutional, and cultural factors that make it unique.

Cyber Threat Intelligence Track

  • Summer B: INR 3133 - Intelligence & National Security
    This course aims to discuss the role of intelligence in U.S. national security, focusing on the role of the intelligence community and U.S. policymakers’ use of intelligence. The course will explore the tension between the intelligence community’s mission to inform and predict with policymaker’s mission to legislate. 
  • Summer B: IDC 3603 - Intro to Cyber Operations
    This course covers various topics such as identifying and analyzing various types of cyber threat actors such as nation-states, cyber criminals and insider threats. This course also focuses on the basics of cyber operations, including its role in cyber warfare, understanding various cybersecurity frameworks and standards, and the role cyber operations play in national security. 
  • Fall: ISS 3222 - Special Topics in Foreign Policy: History of Intelligence
    This course serves as a survey of the major Intelligence Services of the world, east and west, and of their origins in military and civil society. Students learn about the history of the Intelligence Community and emerging technology.  
  • Fall: IDC 3604 - Cyber Threat Intelligence I
    This course focuses on providing students with a fundamental understanding of computing, networking, and security architecture to defend networks and understand how their vulnerabilities can be exploited. Students will learn to identify global threat actor groups (TAGs) tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) and understand how GTAs communicate and leverage various tools to conduct cybercrime and cyberespionage attacks.
  • Spring: ISS 3940 - Public Policy Internship
    This course will serve as a research avenue for students to work on and finalize their Intelligence Assessment Research Products and brief it at various venues to Intelligence Community Practitioners and Industry Professionals.
  • Spring: IDC 3605 - Cyber Threat Intelligence II
    The course covers new topics in network security as well, including psychological approaches to social engineering attacks, Web application attacks, penetration testing, data loss prevention, cloud computing security, and application programming development security.