Intelligence field

The intelligence field, also known as the intelligence business, the intelligence establishment, the intelligence complex, the intelligence industry, the field of intelligence, or the business of intelligence is the global industry revolving around intelligence in all of its forms. The intelligence field is composed of people, groups, and organizations who deal—directly or indirectly—with intelligence, and/or support those people that do. This industry contains; lawyers (not only those practicing intelligence law), professors and academics (not just those in intelligence studies), diplomats, biologists, chemists, astronomers, photographers, videographers, information technology specialists, historians, economists, data scientists, graphic designers, psychologists and profilers, essayists, intelligence analysts, c-suite executives, hackers, coders, and software developers, among others. Individuals employed by intelligence organizations are usually fully employed officers of intelligence agencies called intelligence officers. Those persons popularly called "spies" make up only a small part of the intelligence field—so small that some scholars have even argued that the work of spying, called espionage, is anachronistic and unnecessary in the modern intelligence field. In other words, just as not everyone in the film industry is an actor, not everyone in the intelligence field is a spy, or even deals with intelligence. In sum, Hager Ben Jaffel and Sebastian Larsson write: ...doing intelligence today could mean anything from informing high politics and producing risk assessments, to dealing with the mundanities of the everyday labor of law enforcement, to managing vast databases involving intricate computerized surveillance solutions. One derogatory term that has been used to describe the intelligence field, especially in the United States, is the intelligence-industrial complex.