Reforming Intelligence: Democracy and Effectiveness
Abstract
One of the most difficult and least explored challenges confronting new democracies is that of reforming their intelligence services. Even for long-established democracies, the need for civilian agencies dedicated to protecting national security through the gathering and analysis of intelligence poses serious problems. Democracy requires openness in the flow of information and discussion, while intelligence work often demands secrecy. Maintaining agencies to do such work in the midst of a generally open political culture is a challenge for any democracy. Democratizing or newly democratic countries, however, must deal with the even more arduous task of transforming intelligence bureaucracies that once served undemocratic regimes. An essential part of the work of democratic consolidation, then, is the cultivation of intelligence organizations that will respect the democratic system, even as they routinely deploy secrecy in its defense. Two of the countries discussed in the essays that follow -- South Africa and Taiwan -- have met the challenge of intelligence reform in varying ways; the third country discussed -- Russia -- has seen an intelligence establishment inherited from Soviet days promote a recent backslide toward authoritarianism. To date, scholarship on democratization has tended to focus on the need to remove military and police forces from authoritarian control, and has neglected the question of who controls the national intelligence community (IC). Reforming intelligence and placing it under civilian control can be more difficult than achieving the same with militaries. Resistance may come not only from within the IC, but also from those who are tasked with overseeing intelligence. Nonetheless, with some adaptations, scholarship on the topic of civil-military relations provides a useful template for understanding the question of intelligence reform in a democratic regime.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 01, 2006
- Accession Number
- ADA483968
Entities
People
- Steven C. Boraz
- Thomas C. Bruneau
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School