Growth, diversification, and disconnection: an analysis of 70 years of intelligence scholarship (1950-2020)

Intelligence studies scholarship is growing exponentially but is siloed in disciplinary clusters. After reviewing a citation dataset of nearly 6,000 articles on intelligence, we found that article-based scholarship on intelligence is growing at an exponential rate - the last ten years (2010-2020) saw more knowledge production in scholarship than the previous sixty years combined (1950-2010). The topics under investigation have diversified into three major areas: the study of intelligence services, the 'how to' of intelligence practice, and the impact of intelligence on society. Our analyses of topics and core co-authorship networks show productive but disconnected islands between disciplines. We argue a shift towards more interdisciplinary research could narrow these gaps and make intelligence scholarship more impactful.