| Summary/Abstract |
This article explores the rationales for using interviews as a research method to study national security intelligence, and provides a step-by-step guide for researchers to prepare, conduct, and use interviews in research fields limited by government secrecy. The epistemological and methodological challenges posed by qualitative interviews in the field of intelligence studies are not fundamentally different from those faced in the broader field of international relations. However, government secrecy exacerbates these challenges and increases the need to carefully design and conduct interviews in intelligence research. Scholars of international relations can draw lessons from the best practices of intelligence researchers to overcome these challenges. At the same time, contemporary methodological and epistemological developments in the field of international relations have the potential to broaden the study of intelligence.
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