Beyond Turner's Intelligence Exceptionalism. A new concept for intelligence

Academic Paper from the year 2017 in the subject Politics - Topic: Peace and Conflict, Security, grade: N/A, Brunel University (History, Politics and Law), course: Intelligence & Security Studies, language: English, abstract: In the igniting debate about whether intelligence represents or not an exceptional entity, it seems that an "e;uniqueness theorem"e; is hardly applicable in its entirety to the concept of intelligence. Intelligence is exceptional, but not categorically exceptional. Of all the four characteristics that according to Turner establish the foundation of "e;intelligence exceptionalism"e; - secrecy, law compliance, deception and fungibility -, only secrecy is genuinely exceptional about intelligence. The weakest part of Turner's definition is undoubtedly the lack of comparison of each point with other activities: starting from this and through a series of juxtapositions, this analysis seeks to explain what the strong limits of Turner's definition are.