Its coverage includes international security issues, state stability, terrorism and insurgency, ongoing conflicts, organized crime, and weapons proliferation.

It was first published in January 1989 as Jane's Soviet Intelligence Review, although a pilot edition had been produced in September the previous year and distributed at the Farnborough Airshow in order to test the market.

In 1991 in response to the breakup of the Warsaw Pact, the magazine changed its title to Jane's Intelligence Review although it had already expanded its coverage to include a special report on Iraq in October 1990 following that country's invasion of Kuwait.

In July 1993 it published what is thought to be the first open source reference to "Osameh bin Ladin" who "focused his activities on the military side of jihad and poured millions of dollars into training camps."

[3] The magazine in its current form focuses on a range of global security/stability issues, and includes regular features on international security, state stability, terrorism and insurgency, organised crime, and proliferation and procurement.