The world’s second oldest profession: the transatlantic spying scandal and its aftermath

The revelations from the former National Security Agency contractor, Edward Snowden, in July 2013 will have an enduring impact on the modern business of intelligence and the communication strategies of governments and non-state based adversaries alike. Snowden’s revelations do not mark a fundamental divergence from the general understanding of intelligence. In making these implied understandings public, however, Snowden has changed the political dynamic around mass surveillance. The revelations amplify a tension within several layers of social contract from interactions between governments to those between governments and citizens. Long-term, diplomatic relations between the US and European governments should remain largely unaffected

Fit for the future? The UK government’s plans for a reserve army

Fit for the future? The UK government’s plans for a reserve arm

Europeanization of British Defence Policy.

The Europeanization of defence is an undernourished element of the relatively new field of Europeanization studies. The majority of the extant Europeanization literature covers the extent to which membership of the European Union affects the policies produced by member states, and similarly the way that states configure their bureaucracies in responding to EU policy initiatives. As a result the underlying assumption of Europeanization is that this phenomenon is top-down. Pressure is exerted from EU institutions, European law or by expectations on national governments to engage in EU issues means that member states are compelled to alter their policies to reflect and deliver a ‘Europeanized’ agenda. This book shows these assumptions to be incorrect. The Europeanization of British defence policy (1997-2005) demonstrates that these presumptions can be reversed with member governments uploading their preferences into the EU and effectively locking the other Members into their ‘uploaded’ preferences... cont'd

The place of intelligence in political narratives

The study of politics and international relations is fundamentally about observing a complex world, trying to distil the crucial elements within it, labelling and providing qualities to those elements and then trying to draw generalizable lessons. That is the essence of our practice, in my view. Thus, a set of social practices and organisations that set out to shape narratives that are ‘acceptable’ or ‘permissible’ should be one of the central concerns of all those who seek to study politics or international relations. It is my view that not only are intelligence agencies and practices the so-called missing dimension in international relations, but they are the founding elements and sticky glue that binds states together. Within international history intelligencers provide a partially hidden but parallel account of diplomacy and diplomatic interplay that would cause a radical rehistoricisation of all that we understand to be the received wisdom of international relations. (... continues

SDSR and the path to transformation

The government has to address the long-standing and fundamental need to match resources to the roles it asks Britain’s armed services to fulfil

The NSA, Snowden and the Media

The NSA, Snowden and the Medi

Lost over Libya: the 2010 strategic defence and security review – an obituary

Immediately after the formation of the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government following the May 2010 general election, the conduct of a Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR), in line with election manifesto pledges, was announced. This SDSR was published just prior to the Comprehensive Spending Review in October 2010. It was intended to be a fundamental review of Britain’s defence and security posture, based on the strategic need established by the 2010 National Security Strategy, rather than another example of the budgetary salami slicing seen in the 1990s and in the revisions to the 1998 Strategic Defence Review (SDR) during the 2000s. The message was clear: the SDSR was distinctive precisely because it was the operational embodiment of the NSS’s strategic assessment. However, by the turn of 2011, the SDSR was already being seen as fundamentally flawed by parliamentarians, defence professionals and expert commentators alike (continues ...

The politics of the strategic defence and security review: centralisation and cuts

This article examines the politics of the October 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR), focussing on the points of difference between the main political parties (and within the Cameron coalition government) and the political dynamics of the review process. In examining how the government's core mission to reduce the country's ‘historic deficit’ impacted on the review process and outcomes, we are also able to highlight the practical results of a political philosophy that is currently being implemented across Whitehall. We argue that defence is a path-finding policy area for a new kind of post-industrial bureaucratic environment typified by a ‘thin-client’ and ‘smart customer’ function that interacts with industry

The HERO review: harnessing efficiencies, rethinking outcomes: the future of the defence estate

The HERO review: harnessing efficiencies, rethinking outcomes: the future of the defence estat

Book Review: National intelligence and science: beyond the great divide in analysis and policy. By Wilhelm Agrell and Gregory F. Treverton.

Book Review: National intelligence and science: beyond the great divide in analysis and policy. By Wilhelm Agrell and Gregory F. Treverton