Intelligence gathering has gone down as one of the oldest professions to have ever been recorded. From the start of written records, we can see that the collection and analysis of intelligence and the gathering of evidence has always been a priority. Understanding your enemy and being able to know ahead of time their next move without their knowledge puts you at an advantage and helps with self preservation as well as the survival of your state. John Hughes-Wilson, a prominent American military historian has said that “every great commander in history has relied on good intelligence as a ‘force multiplier’, or as a guide as to when and where he should strike.” Intelligence contributes to national security in a multitude of ways including the ability to see the big picture and fully understand an environment, as well as the creation of sound government policy, the prediction of future national security risks ,the ability to be a step ahead of any adversary and to be able to react in a timely fashion should an attack take place. According to the New Zealand National Security System Handbook, national security is “the condition which permits the citizens of a state to go about their daily business confidently free from fear and able to make the most of opportunities to advance their way of life” The definition of intelligence is one that has been widely disputed throughout all periods of history and will be forever, however I feel for this essay this definition written by Shulsky, & Schmitt fits well, “Intelligence is used to refer to a certain kind of knowledge, to the activity of obtaining knowledge of this kind( and thwarting the similar activity of others) and to the organisations whose function is to obtain (or deny) it”.
In the creation of government policies, intelligence is used as a guide. Intelligence provides policy makers with hard facts and evidence to help gain consideration and understanding for the policy they are trying to pass as “in a democracy policies must be-or at least be seen as being-grounded in intelligence.” Policy makers look to intelligence agencies to provide them with information that fits the policy they are writing so that all bases are covered and questions are answered, leaving no stone unturned. “Policy makers have a constant need for tailored…timely intelligence that will provide background, context, information, warning and assessment of risks, benefits and likely outcomes” There is often tension between policy makers and their intelligence counter parts as intelligence officers are expected to leave emotion out of the equation due to the fact that they are not allowed to be seen holding a bias over the policy in case their intelligence then also shares that bias. It is not down to the intelligence officers to gain momentum for the policies, once they have delivered the intelligence required it then falls to the policy makers who rely heavily on the emotion involved in politics to pass their policy. Political support is necessary for policymakers as without it they are unable to pass their policies, policymakers must show that their policies are supported, that they are without risks and meet every goal that had been set. They do this by using the intelligence provided to them by intelligence officers.
“Intelligence is a means to an end. This end is the security, and even prosperity, of the entity that provides for the collection and subsequent analysis of intelligence.” Intelligence gives context to just about every aspect of the world. Without access to intelligence there is no understanding of the outside world and how it works. Intelligence also gives states the ability “to be well informed, to effectively advance our national security and wellbeing. Those decision-makers need information that is relevant to the choices they face, to ensure they make the best decisions…” Every year states around the world spend billions of dollars on their intelligence agencies so that they can be predicting and preventing future national security risks. The intelligence community is there to collect and analyse information that would have otherwise not been seen and understood. Intelligence is used to gain a greater understanding of the situation, it is also good for decreasing concern as “reducing uncertainty sometimes involves acquiring information, overtly and covertly, that is thought to be useful to understanding developments or intentions.” The information that is often required to reduce said uncertainty is not information easily available to scholars nor professionals and is required to be collected by either an intelligence officer or human informant.
One of the leading reasons for intelligence playing a role in national security is the ability to use the gathered information to make timely and accurate decisions in matters of great importance. Michael Warner said, “the histories of war, diplomacy and intelligence illuminate such advantages, and also show various ways in which secrecy amplifies ‘actions’ advantages as well as ‘information’ advantages”. There are multiple collection methods used by intelligence agencies such as human intelligence (humint), collected by intelligence officers or informants on the ground, signals intelligence (sigint) such as comint, intercepting communications between sources and open source intelligence (osint), the collection of information from open sources such as social media. “Intelligence leads to more accurate and timely decisions and actions, and thus to relative advantage vis-à-vis one’s competitors. Intelligence thereby has to be an important part of decision advantage in international relations” It is through monitoring like this that intelligence agencies gain prompt, relevant information they can then use to prevent anything from drug shipments entering the country to bombings and mass shootings, or should it come down to it, use the information to help clean up and reprimand culprits. Intelligence agencies use intelligence to monitor what is happening with their allies as well as their adversaries, staying on top of what is happening globally is a favourable way to protect your own state. Keeping current with global events helps to keep national security a top priority. Mark Lowenthal argues that had Hitler been monitoring his allies as well as his adversaries he would have foreseen Japans bombing of Pearl Harbor and The United States subsequent entry into the second World War. Lowenthal then goes on to discuss that had Hitler been aware he may have stared Japan in the direction of Europe instead leading to a potentially completely different ending to the war. Governments around the world are funneling more money into their intelligence agencies as a way to keep themselves secure, “The federal government budget for the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) rose by 250% between 2005 and 2015 and its sta numbers increased threefold from 600 o cers in 2001 to 1800 by 2015.” Australia is not the only country who has seen an exponential growth in their state security as all of the five eyes nations has seen a dramatic increase in their national security budgets post 9/11. This is showing that although intelligence agencies have always been looked to and respected, it is understood that as the world changes we need to keep developing and funding our intelligence community in order to keep up.
In conclusion, there are many instances in which intelligence contributes to national security, whether it be through helping gain an overall understanding of an environment such as an understanding of the ground conditions in Syria currently, or predicting and preventing national security threats such as terror attacks and drug shipments. Monitoring potential security risks and helping to create policies to keep the country safe, also contain information gathered by intelligence agencies as intelligence is intertwined through everything we do. “The foremost goal of any intelligence community must be to keep track of threats, forces, events, and developments that are capable of endangering the nations existence” Without the gathering and analysis of intelligence the state of national security would be precarious at best. Intelligence has laid the basis for all decisions that are made throughout governments and their agencies throughout history as no one has wanted to make a completely uninformed decision for fear of failure. Intelligence will continue to be the ground work for all decisions as states strive for national security in times of global turmoil.