The Science of Nation and the Smart Nation

After the end of the Cold War the paradigm of „openess”, nurtured by a few enthusiast pioneers, started to ignite world wide, generating „open” intelligence communities.   What was previously an activity associated only with the daily routine inside intelligence agencies, became an activity fostering social innovation and global education. In this new paradigm, well educated citizens and social intelligence processes are considered the means to develop a „smart nation”. Two decades later, the intelligence field is developing its own academic realm, in a setting that combines both civilian and military dimensions. At the beginning of the 20^th century, the Romanian sociologist Dimitrie Gusti was one of those who understood the importance of education in national development. His „science of nation” is a contribution which could be linked over time with the „smart nation” concept. Our research interest is focused on discovering new bridges between these two concepts and on defining a framework leading to their operationalization.

Civil and Military Innovation

An interesting knowledge shift is apparent in today’s world. Classical basic scientific fields become influenced and enriched by concepts from military thought. In fact, most concepts, theories, mechanisms or processes can gain new and valuable dimensions in terms of theory, application, practice or transaction when security considerations are introduced. This is why, it is important to identify, document, understand and disseminate those innovative ideas behind the academic field of intelligence. Political science, economics and other social sciences can only benefit from incorporating the contributions brought by military thought surrounding such notions as risk, uncertainty or prediction.