The Strategic Intelligence Community

This chapter introduces the concept of intelligence and elaborates on its meaning, theoretical foundations, explanatory properties and cognitive values. The meaning of strategic intelligence is also explained. The concept of intelligence community is presented and discussed with reference to the related terms ‘security community’ and ‘epistemic community’. The cognitive framework explained in this chapter focuses on transnational network structures of bilateral or multilateral interconnections built on common strategic interests, congenial ideological bases and like-minded attitudes to national interests. Considerable differences in the understandings of the intelligence community by EU officials and government representatives are explained by the interpretation of the EU intelligence community as a distorted epistemic community.