Strategy Innovation and Global Intelligence Lab
The Strategy Innovation and Global Intelligence Lab was established in January 2022 as a network of intelligence scholars and students to promote intelligence studies, research, strategy, innovation and scholarship globally.
SIGIL aims to provide a forum for exchange of ideas, best practices, and knowledge concerning the development of intelligence education.
MISSION
The mission of the Strategy Innovation and Global Intelligence Lab (SIGIL) at Virginia Tech is twofold: first, to promote the academic study of intelligence and offer the interested public analytical, informative, and accessible intelligence reports on national, regional, and global issues; and second, to link intelligence analysis to strategy formulation.
OBJECTIVES
The objectives of the Strategy Innovation and Global Intelligence Lab (SIGIL) at Virginia Tech include:
- Strengthening the Intelligence Studies academic curriculum at Virginia Tech
- Reinforcing the study and teaching of strategy at Virginia Tech
- Connecting intelligence analysis to strategy formulation
- Involving students in experiential learning activities helping them to link theory to practice
- Establishing an Intelligence Studies International Academic Network
- Connecting students and faculty with various intelligence organizations and agencies
- Organizing guest lectures, workshops, and simulations
- Providing students with opportunities to publish in the field of Intelligence Studies
- Publishing analysis on national, regional, and global issues
ADMINISTRATION
- Director: Ehren Hill
- Co-Director: Dr. Yannis A. Stivachtis
INTERNATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD
- John Nomikos
- Adriana Seagle
FACULTY
- Paul Avey
- Aaron Brantly
- Priya Dixit
- Robert Hodges
- Clara Suong
National Security and Foreign Affairs (NSFA)
Offered both as a major and minor at Virginia Tech, NSFA analyzes the role of diplomacy in the management of world affairs and provides a hands-on, practical approach to security analysis that would equip students with the tools to analyze threats that challenge US security both at home and abroad. This program offers students the necessary knowledge and skills that would allow them to successfully pursue careers in diplomacy and national security.
The major analyzes and examines in-depth U.S. grand strategy and foreign policy; the current and future global geopolitical environment that affect the U.S. and its interests; the ends, ways, and means that impact the use of military force; the informational issues that contribute to the holistic implementation of strategy, and counterterrorism and homeland security.
Strategic Intelligence Organization (SIO)
The SIO at Virginia Tech is an organization dedicated to providing students with the ability to gain real world skills pertaining to careers with the Intelligence Community (IC). The SIO educates and trains students in basic skills necessary to analyze information culled for a final product. The organization familiarizes and allows hands on experience for its members towards the intelligence process in order to familiarize them with each step and its importance to the cycle.
Through collaborations with IC members, the organization allows the undergraduate students to network with professionals in their intended field. It is the hope of the SIO that organizations within the Federal Government and the private sector will partner with the SIO to become both mentors and collaborators for the SIO members, but also to influence and receive open source products the organization produces. The connection between the SIO and the professional world will allow the students to become better acquainted with professionalism for intelligence work.
PUBLICATIONS
- John M. Nomikos, “Asymmetric Warfare Threats in Greece: A Descriptive Analysis”, Journal of Contemporary Military Challenges, General Staff of the Slovenian Armed Forces, November 2020, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
- John M. Nomikos, “Greece: The Need for Modernization in an Unstable Environment” in the Handbook of European Intelligence Cultures” edited by Bob De Graaff and James M. Nyce – with Chelsea Locke, published by Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2016, USA
- John M. Nomikos, “Transatlantic Intelligence Cooperation, the Global War on Terrorism and International Order”, (ed) by Yiannis A. Stivachtis in the International Order in a Globalizing World, (Ashgate, London), 2007, UK.