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Economic intelligence (EI) and/or strategic intelligence (SI) has been the subject of numerous studies highlighting uses that are both economic (companies) and related to territorial development (public sector). However, research on its application as an operational management device specific to the non-economic services of local government is not very extensive. This is why our article proposes to broaden the line of research in this field. Local government performs a public service mission linked to political objectives. It is important to examine the information-related operational needs of these services, as well as to take into account the networks of actors present in the territory. To this end, we have carried out a review of the literature in the fields of economic and strategic intelligence, territorial economic intelligence (TEI), and territorial intelligence (TI), as well as that concerning their application to local authorities. This research has allowed us to identify a set of questions to which the literature does not provide a precise answer. They constitute the basis of our research on the applicability of strategically intelligent operational management to all local government missions. From a theoretical and managerial point of view, the originality of our research is based on the wide applicability of strategic intelligence practices to the operational functions of local authorities, taking into account the complexity of the two-headed governance of the latter. © 2022 IDMP/Lavoisier SAS. All rights reserved