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ABSTRACT
Many scholars have pointed to intelligence sharing (also known as intelligence liaison) as one of the most closely guarded secrets within intelligence communities. The Five Eyes intelligence community is one of the biggest and most enduring multi-state intelligence sharing networks in the world. This article compares the European Union and the Five Eyes intelligence communities and identifies potential factors which foster long-standing intelligence relationships. This article argues that the decisions made by the Five Eyes, such as the creation of shared structural complementarities and existing cultural similarities, have created a path dependence between the Five Eyes powers. The same kind of path dependence has not been created when looking at the EU. A common identity has helped forge this path dependence and helped form a strong multi-state, long-term intelligence sharing relationship.
Acknowledgment
I want to wholeheartedly thank my doctoral supervisor Dr. Dan Gorman, for his feedback and support. I would also like to thank my Master’s supervisor Dr. Christian Schweiger for his initial feedback on this project and his support throughout my previous degree.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 James Cox, ‘Canada and the Five Eyes Community’, Strategic Studies Working Papers (Canadian International Council, December 2012): 1–13.
2 Richard Aldrich, ‘Transatlantic Intelligence and Security Cooperation,’ International Affairs 80, No. 4 (2004): 737.
3 For example see: James I. Walsh, The International Politics of Intelligence Sharing (New York: Columbia University Press, 2010); James Walsh, ‘Defection and Hierarchy in International Intelligence Sharing,’ Journal of Public Policy 27, no. 02 (2007); Adam Svendsen, Understanding the Globalization of Intelligence, (United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012); and Derek S. Reveron, ‘Old Allies, New Friends: Intelligence-Sharing in the War on Terror’, Orbis 50, no. 3 (2006): 453–468.
4 For example see: Aldrich, ‘Transatlantic Intelligence and Security Cooperation’, 731–53; Walsh, ‘Defection and Hierarchy in International Intelligence Sharing’, 151–181; Walsh, The International Politics of Intelligence Sharing; Frederic Ischebeck-Baum, ‘Anglo-German Intelligence Relations and Brexit’, Journal of Intelligence History 16, no. 2 (3 July 2017): 95; Oldrich Bures, ‘Intelligence Sharing and the Fight against Terrorism in the EU: Lessons Learned from Europol’, European View; Heidelberg 15, no. 1 (June 2016): 62; and Steven L Hall, ‘Intelligence Sharing with Russia: A Practitioners Perspective’, Task Force on U.S. Policy Towards Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and the Chicago Council on Global Affairs), accessed 27 July 2020, https://carnegieendowment.org/2017/02/09/intelligence-sharing-with-russia-practitioner-s-perspective-pub-67962.
5 Bjorn Muller-Wille, ‘The Effect of International Terrorism on EU Intelligence Co-Operation’, Journal of Common Market Studies, 46, no. 1 (2007): 49–50.
6 Bures, ‘Intelligence Sharing and the Fight against Terrorism in the EU’, 62;
7 Muller-Wille, ‘The Effect of International Terrorism on EU Intelligence Co-Operation’, 49–50.
8 Ben Jaffel, Hager. ‘Britain’s European Connection in Counter-Terrorism Intelligence Cooperation: Everyday Practices of Police Liaison Officers’. Intelligence and National Security 35, no. 7 (9 November 2020): 1007–25.
9 Michael Warner, ‘Wanted: A Definition of Intelligence’, Studies in Intelligence 46, no. 3 (2002): 16; and Loch Johnson, ‘National Security Intelligence’, in The Oxford Handbook of National Security Intelligence, ed. Loch Johnson (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), 5.
10 James I. Walsh, ‘Intelligence-Sharing in the European Union: Institutions Are Not Enough*’, JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies 44, no. 3 (2006): 626; Len Scott and Peter Jackson. ‘The Study of Intelligence in Theory and Practice.’ Intelligence and National Security 19, no. 2 (2004): 143; and Andrew Rathmell, ‘Towards Postmodern Intelligence’ Intelligence and National Security 17, no. 3 (2002): 89.
11 Johnson, ‘National Security Intelligence,’ 6.
12 Walsh, The International Politics of Intelligence Sharing, 6.
13 IBID, 7.
14 Jeffery Richelson and Ball Desmond, The Ties That Bind: Intelligence Cooperation Between the United Kingdom/United States of America Countries – United Kingdom, United States of America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand (Boston: HarperCollins Publishers, 1986), 3, 84; and Martin Rudner, ‘The Historical Evolution of Canada’s Foreign Intelligence Capability: Cold War SIGINT Strategy and Its Legacy’, Journal of Intelligence History 6, no. 1 (June 2006): 67, 82.
15 ‘Annual Report: For the Year Ended 30 June 2014’, (New Zealand Security Intelligence Service, 2014 2013), 18, accessed 23 July 2020, https://www.nzsis.govt.nz/assets/media/nzsis-ar14.pdf.
16 Walsh, ‘Intelligence-Sharing in the European Union’, 629; Bures, ‘Intelligence Sharing and the Fight against Terrorism in the EU’, 62; Judy Dempsey, ‘NATO’s Intelligence Deficit: It’s the Members, Stupid!’, Strategic Europe, 25 May 2017, https://carnegieeurope.eu/strategiceurope/?fa=70086; and Adriana N. Seagle, ‘Intelligence Sharing Practices Within NATO: An English School Perspective’, International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence 28, no. 3 (3 July 2015): 570.
17 Brian C. Rathbun, Trust in International Cooperation: International Security Institutions, Domestic Politics, and American Multilateralism, Cambridge Studies in International Relations 121 (Cambridge, UK ; Cambridge University Press, 2012): 4; Walsh, ‘Intelligence-Sharing in the European Union’, 628; Bures, ‘Intelligence Sharing and the Fight against Terrorism in the EU’, 62; and Priscilla Alvarez, ‘The Risks of Sharing Intelligence’, The Atlantic, 16 May 2017, https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/05/trump-russia-intelligence-sharing/526857/.
18 Brandon Klinne, ‘Network Dynamics and the Evolution of International Cooperation’, The American Political Science Review, 107, no. 4 (November 2013): 766.
19 Ian Greener, ‘The Potential of Path Dependence in Political Studies’, Politics 25, no. 1 (February 2005): 62.
20 Spanger, Hans-Joachim. ‘The Perils of Path Dependency: Germany’s Russia Policy’. Europe-Asia Studies 72, no. 6 (2 July 2020): 1057.
21 Greener, ‘The Potential of Path Dependence in Political Studies’, 66–67
22 IBID, 67
23 Richelson and Ball, The Ties That Bind, 1–3; Rudner, ‘The Historical Evolution of Canada’s Foreign Intelligence Capability’, 70, 73.
24 ‘Agreement Between the British Government Code and Cypher School and U.S. War Department in Regard to Certain “Special Intelligence”’ (Washington, D.C: War Department General Staff, 10 June 1943), accessed 23 July 2020, https://www.nsa.gov/Portals/70/documents/news-features/declassified-documents/nsa-60th-timeline/pre-nsa/19430610_PreNSA_Doc_3678774_Agreement. and A. Dennis Clift, ‘The Evolution of International Collaboration in the Global Intelligence Era’, in The Oxford Handbook of National Security Intelligence, ed. Loch Johnson (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), 217; and Reveron, ‘Old Allies, New Friends’, 460.
25 ‘BRUSA Planning Conference Final Report’, 1953, accessed 23 July 2020, https://www.nsa.gov/Portals/70/documents/news-features/declassified-documents/ukusa/brusa_final_rep_1953.pdf.; and Walsh, The International Politics of Intelligence Sharing, 39; ‘Classification and Handling of Information Related to COMINT or COMINT Related Activities’, Appendix B, Annexure B3, 5 October 1959; and ‘Priciples of Security and Dissemination’, Appendix B, 1 July 1959, 8, Accessed 27 July 2020. https://www.nsa.gov/Portals/70/documents/news-features/declassified-documents/ukusa/principles_of_security_and_dissemination_appendix_b_1_july_1959.pdf; Rudner, ‘The Historical Evolution of Canada’s Foreign Intelligence Capability’, 74;
26 Walsh, ‘Intelligence-Sharing in the European Union’, 630.
27 Richelson and Ball, The Ties That Bind, 7.
28 IBID, 67.
29 Toby Manhire, ‘New Zealand Spying on Pacific Allies for “Five Eyes” and NSA, Snowden Files Show’, The Guardian, 5 March 2015, accessed 23 July 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/mar/05/new-zealand-spying-on-pacific-allies-for-five-eyes-and-nsa-snowden-files-show; and David Farrar,‘Do We Benefit from Five Eyes?’, NBR, 21 April 2015, accessed 23 July 2020, https://www.nbr.co.nz/opinion/do-we-benefit-five-eyes.
30 Richelson and Ball, The Ties That Bind, 67.
31 Seagle, ‘Intelligence Sharing Practices Within NATO’, 563.
32 ‘Principles of UKUSA Collaboration with Commonwealth Countries Other than the UK’, Appendix J, 18 February 1961, accessed 28 July 2020, https://www.nsa.gov/Portals/70/documents/news-features/declassified-documents/ukusa/principles_of_ukusa_collaboration_with_commonwealth_countries_other_than_the_uk_appendix_j_13_february_1961.pdf.
33 IBID.
34 Cox, ‘Canada and the Five Eyes Intelligence Community’, 4.
35 Richelson and Ball, The Ties That Bind, 141, 239.
36 Cox, ‘Canada and the Five Eyes Intelligence Community’, 5.
37 Richelson and Ball, The Ties That Bind, 237.
38 Jeffery Checkel, ‘Social Mechanisms and Regional Cooperation: Are Europe and the EU Really All That Different?’, in Crafting Cooperation: Regional International Institutions in Comparative Perspective, ed. Johnston Alastair and Amitav Acharya, 1st ed. (United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 221.
39 Amitav Acharya and Johnston Alastair, ‘Comparing Regional Institutions: An Introduction’, in Crafting Cooperation: Regional International Institutions in Comparative Perspective, ed. Amitav Acharya and Johnston Alastair, 1st ed. (United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 1–31.
40 See for example: European Union. ‘Treaty of Lisbon Amending the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty Establishing the European Community’, 13 December 2007, 2007/C 306/01 accessed Septmber 29 2021: Article 3a, 12, 28, 61.
41 Council of the European Union, ‘Council Conclusions Following the Commission Communication on the European Information Exchange Model (EIXM)’ (Justice and Home Affairs Council Meeting, 6 June 2013), accessed 27 July 2020, https://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_Data/docs/pressdata/en/j ha/137,402.pdf; and European Commission, ‘Communication from the Commission to European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions: The European Agenda on Security’ (Strasbourg, 28 April 2020), accessed 31 July 2020, https://ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/sites/homeaffairs/files/e-library/documents/basic-documents/docs/eu_agenda_on_security_en.pdf; Bures, ‘Intelligence Sharing and the Fight against Terrorism in the EU’, 58, 61–62.
42 European Union. ‘Treaty of Lisbon Amending the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty Establishing the European Community’, 13 December 2007, 2007/C 306/01 accessed 29 September 2021: Article 3a(2) and Article 61 F.
43 IBID, Article 12.
44 IBID, Article 61 F
45 Greener, ‘The Potential of Path Dependence in Political Studies’, 66.
46 Walsh, ‘Intelligence-Sharing in the European Union’, 625–626; Claudia Hillebrand, ‘With or without You? The UK and Information and Intelligence Sharing in the EU’, Journal of Intelligence History 16, no. 2 (3 July 2017): 92; Richard J. Aldrich, ‘US–European Intelligence Co-Operation on Counter-Terrorism: Low Politics and Compulsion’, The British Journal of Politics and International Relations 11, no. 1 (February 2009): 127; and Ischebeck-Baum, ‘Anglo-German Intelligence Relations and Brexit’, 97.
47 Rubén Arcos and José-Miguel Palacios, ‘EU INTCEN: A Transnational European Culture of Intelligence Analysis?’, Intelligence and National Security 35, no. 1 (2 January 2020): 77–78.
48 Walsh, ‘Intelligence-Sharing in the European Union,’ 625–626.
49 Anonymous, ‘Schengen Area’, Text, Migration and Home Affairs – European Commission, 6 December 2016, accessed 30 July 2020, https://ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/what-we-do/policies/borders-and-visas/schengen_en; and Bures, ‘Comparing Regional Institutions’, 58
50 For example see: European Union. ‘Treaty of Lisbon’, Article 69B (1).
51 Walsh, ‘Intelligence-Sharing in the European Union’, 626.
52 Ischebeck-Baum, ‘Anglo-German Intelligence Relations and Brexit’, 97; Walsh. The International Politics of Intelligence Sharing, 89.
53 Ischebeck-Baum, 97.
54 Anonymous. ‘Countries’. Text. European Union, 5 July 2016, accessed 20 October 2021, https://europa.eu/european-union/about-eu/countries_en.
55 Bures, ‘Intelligence Sharing and the Fight against Terrorism in the EU’, 62.
56 Council of the European Union, ‘Council Conclusions Following the Commission Communication on the European Information Exchange Model (EIXM)’; Bures, ‘Intelligence Sharing and the Fight against Terrorism in the EU’, 57–66; and Hillebrand, ‘With or without You? The UK and Information and Intelligence Sharing in the EU’; 93.
57 Ben Jaffel, ‘Britain’s European Connection in Counter-Terrorism Intelligence Cooperation’, 1007.
58 IBID.
59 IBID, 1008
60 IBID, 1009.
61 Walsh. The International Politics of Intelligence Sharing, 104.
62 Walsh. The International Politics of Intelligence Sharing, 89.
63 Aldrich, ‘US–European Intelligence Co-Operation on Counter-Terrorism’, 127.
64 Bures, ‘Intelligence Sharing and the Fight against Terrorism in the EU’, 62.
65 ‘BRUSA Planning Conference Final Report’.
66 ‘Principles of Security and Dissemination’, Appendix B, 1 July 1959, 1, accessed 23 July 2020, https://www.nsa.gov/Portals/70/documents/news-features/declassified-documents/ukusa/principles_of_security_and_dissemination_appendix_b_1_july_1959.pdf.
67 Walsh, The International Politics of Intelligence Sharing, 10.
68 Dempsey, ‘NATO’s Intelligence Deficit’.
69 Intelligence and Security Committee, ‘Intelligence and Security Committee Annual Report 2009–2010’ (Norwich: TSO, 2010), accessed 23 July 2020, 18, accessed 23 July 2020, http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/document/cm78/7844/7844.asp.
70 Dempsey, ‘NATO’s Intelligence Deficit’; Alvarez, ‘The Risks of Sharing Intelligence’.
71 Ischebeck-Baum, ‘Anglo-German Intelligence Relations and Brexit’, 98; Dempsey, ‘NATO’s Intelligence Deficit’.
72 Bradley Smith, Sharing Secrets with Stalin: How the Allies Traded Intelligence, 1941–1945. Lawrence, (KS: University Press of Kansas, 1996).
73 Walsh, ‘Intelligence-Sharing in the European Union’, 629.
74 ‘Principles of UKUSA Collaboration with Commonwealth Countries Other than the UK’, 2.
75 ‘Principles of Security and Dissemination’, 10–11.
76 Hager Ben Jaffel, ‘Britain’s European Connection in Counter-Terrorism Intelligence Cooperation: Everyday Practices of Police Liaison Officers’, Intelligence and National Security 35, no. 7 (9 November 2020): 1007–25.
77 Christopher C. Joyner and Alejandro Alvarez von Gustedt, ‘The Turbot War of 1995: Lessons for the Law of the Sea’, International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law 11, no. 4 (1996): 425.
78 IBID
79 Gerlinde Mautner, ‘British National Identity in the European Context’ in Attitudes Towards Europe: Language in the Unification Process, ed. Andreas Musolff et al. (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, 2001), 9.
80 Walsh, The International Politics of Intelligence Sharing, 29.
81 Seagle, ‘Intelligence Sharing Practices Within NATO’, 558.
82 McGeorge Bundy, ‘Memorandum for the Executive Secretary, Department of State, “NSAM No. 241 on Report on French Gaseous Diffusion Plant”’, Meetings and Memoranda, Papers on John F. Kennedy. Presidential Papers. National Security Files (John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, 27 May 1964), accessed 28 July 2020, https://www.jfklibrary.org/asset-viewer/archives/JFKNSF/341/JFKNSF-341-001; and John McCone and Glenn Seaborg, National Security Action Memoranda [NSAM]: NSAM 241, Report on French Gaseous Diffusion Plant, Papers on John F. Kennedy. Presidential Papers. National Security Files (John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, 13 May 1963), 5, accessed 28 July 2020, https://www.jfklibrary.org/asset-viewer/archives/JFKNSF/341/JFKNSF-341-001.
83 McCone and Seaborg, 5.
84 IBID, 1–2.
85 Dean Rusk, ‘Memorandum for the President, “Interim Reply to Your Memorandum of 30 May 1963, for Holders of NSAM 241”’, National Security Action Memoranda [NSAM]: NSAM 241, Report on French Gaseous Diffusion Plant, Papers on John F. Kennedy. Presidential Papers. National Security Files (John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, 22 May 1964), accessed 28 July 2020, https://www.jfklibrary.org/asset-viewer/archives/JFKNSF/341/JFKNSF-341-001.
86 Benjamin Read, ‘State Department Executive Secretary Benjamin H. Read to National Security Adviser McGeorge Bundy, “NSAM 241 on Report on French Gaseous Diffusion Plant”’ (History and Public Policy Program Digital Archive, 22 May 1964), accessed 22 July 2020, https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/177769.
87 Intelligence and Security Committee, ‘Intelligence and Security Committee Annual Report 2009-2010’ (Norwich: TSO, 2010), accessed July 23, 2020, 18, accessed July 23, 2020, http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/document/cm78/7844/7844.asp..
88 Dempsey, ‘NATO’s Intelligence Deficit’; Alvarez, ‘The Risks of Sharing Intelligence’..
89 Cox, ‘Canada and the Five Eyes Intelligence Community,’ 5.
90 Simona Guerra, ‘Does Familiarity Breed Contempt? Determinants of Public Support for European Integration and Opposition to It before and after Accession: Does Familiarity Breed Contempt?’, JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies 51, no. 1 (January 2013): 42.
91 Thomas Risse, ‘The Euro between National and European Identity’, Journal of European Public Policy 10, no. 4 (January 2003): 487, 494.
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93 Neil Fligstein, Alina Polyakova, and Wayne Sandholtz, ‘European Integration, Nationalism and European Identity’, Journal of Common Market Studies, Journal of Common Market Studies, 50, no. 1 (2012): 112.
94 John Erik Fossum, ‘Identity-Politics in the European Union’, Journal of European Integration 23, no. 4 (2001): 396.
95 Fligstein, Euroclash, 136–137.
96 Fligstein, Euroclash, 16, 130; and Schilde, ‘Who Are the Europeans?,’ 652.
97 Fossum, ‘Identity-Politics in the European Union’, 374.
98 Dionyssis G, Dimitrakopoulos, ‘Incrementalism and Path Dependence: European Integration and Institutional Change in National Parliaments’, JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies 39, no. 3 (September 2001): 416.
99 IBID, 417.
100 Patrick J. McGowan and Robert M. Rood, ‘Alliance Behavior in Balance of Power Systems: Applying a Poisson Model to Nineteenth-Century Europe’, The American Political Science Review 69, no. 3 (1975): 859–70; and Jeremy Black, Eighteenth Century Europe, 2nd ed, History of Europe (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999), 362–63, 373–77.
101 Richelson and Ball, The Ties That Bind, 135.
102 Aldrich, ‘Transatlantic Intelligence and Security Cooperation’, 738.
103 Keith Jeffery, ‘British Military Intelligence Following World War I’, in British and American Approaches to Intelligence, ed. K. G Robertson, 2nd ed. (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1987), 55; and Thomas J. Price, ‘Popular Perceptions of an Ally: “The Special Relationship” in the British Spy Novel’, The Journal of Popular Culture 28, no. 2 (1994): 53.
104 Jeffery, ‘British Military Intelligence Following World War I’, 55–56.
105 Price, ‘Popular Perceptions of an Ally’, 53; and John Dumbrell, ‘The US–UK Special Relationship: Taking the 21st-Century Temperature’, British Journal of Politics & International Relations 11, no. 1 (2009): 65.
106 ‘Agreement Between the British Government Code and Cypher School and U.S. War Department in Regard to Certain “Special Intelligence”’ (Washington, D.C: War Department General Staff, 10 June 1943), accessed 23 July 2020, https://www.nsa.gov/Portals/70/documents/news-features/declassified-documents/nsa-60th-timeline/pre-nsa/19430610_PreNSA_Doc_3678774_Agreement.
107 Richelson and Ball, The Ties That Bind, 1–3.
108 ‘Classification and Handling of Information Related to COMINT or COMINT Related Activities’, Appendix B, Annexure B3, 5 October 1959; ‘Priciples of Security and Dissemination’, Appendix B, 1 July 1959, 8, https://www.nsa.gov/Portals/70/documents/news-features/declassified-documents/ukusa/principles_of_security_and_dissemination_appendix_b_1_july_1959.pdf; Walsh, ‘Intelligence-Sharing in the European Union’, 630; and Walsh, The International Politics of Intelligence Sharing, 39
109 ‘Classification and Handling of Information Related to COMINT or COMINT Related Activities’, Appendix B, Annexure B3, 5 October 1959,
110 Adriana N. Seagle, ‘Intelligence Sharing Practices Within NATO: An English School Perspective’, International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence 28, no. 3 (3 July 2015): 562–63.
111 Dumbrell, ‘The US-UK Special Relationship’, 65.
112 Fligstein, Euroclash, 33.
113 Anonymous, ‘The History of the European Union’, Text, European Union, 16 June 2016, https://europa.eu/european-union/about-eu/history_en; and Martin Dedman, The Origins and Development of the European Union, 1945–95: A History of European Integration, (London ; New York: Routledge, 1996): 16–33.
114 Walsh, ‘Intelligence-Sharing in the European Union’, 626; Reveron, ‘Old Allies, New Friends,’ 461; Hillebrand, ‘With or without You? The UK and Information and Intelligence Sharing in the EU’, 91–94; Seagle, ‘Intelligence Sharing Practices Within NATO’, 557–77; Bures, ‘Intelligence Sharing and the Fight against Terrorism in the EU,’ 62–63.
115 Greener, ‘The Potential of Path Dependence in Political Studies’, 67.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Carleigh A. Cartmell
Carleigh A. Cartmell is a Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Waterloo’s Global Governance program. Carleigh completed a Master’s degree in International Studies from Durham University and a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of Calgary.