Claudia Hillebrand

Legitimacy under Pressure: The European Web of Counter-Terrorism Networks

Within European law enforcement circles, counter-terrorism networks and privileged partnerships tend to be preferred to formal bureaucratic structures because of their flexibility and directness. The professional preference for informal, bilateral and privileged relationships may, however, undermine the potential of formally established agencies such as Europol and Eurojust, which work through national and centrally co-ordinated channels of information and intelligence. This article seeks to assess whether standards of democratic, legal and social legitimacy are under pressure as a consequence of this persistent preference for horizontal, direct and informal co-operation.

The Role of News Media in Intelligence Oversight

Abstract This article explores the role of the news media in overseeing intelligence services and their work. As an informal mechanism, how do they fit into the wider landscape of intelligence oversight? By drawing on examples of US counter-terrorism efforts in the post-9/11 era, the article identifies three roles for the news media in intelligence oversight: as an information transmitter and stimulator for formal scrutinizers, as a substitute watchdog and as a legitimizing institution. Yet there is a danger of the news media acting merely as a lapdog. Other limitations include the impact of regulatory frameworks, government secrecy and the media strategies of intelligence services. The article concludes that the news media play an important role in the wider intelligence oversight landscape, but that their ability to scrutinize is uneven and ad hoc and as a result the picture they produce is blurred.

The Quest for a Theory of Intelligence

Intelligence Studies, as with all fields of enquiry in the social sciences and humanities, is replete with individuals seeking to develop concepts and models that will allow the specific to illuminate the universal. In short, one might be said to require a unifying theory of intelligence. This chapter argues that it is futile to seek a grand theory; instead, a better understanding and cognition of ‘intelligence’ should be sought.

With or without you? The UK and information and intelligence sharing in the EU

ABSTRACT This short article explores some of the implications which the UK’s departure from the EU will have on the realm of EU-wide information and intelligence sharing. Reflecting on the significant role of the UK in this field so far, the article argues that there remains a strong wish on both sides to continue collaboration in this crucial domain of security provision. The article outlines the emergence of an ever closer network of information and intelligence sharing across EU institutions and with national agencies of EU member states. If the UK leaves the EU according to a ‘hard Brexit’ scenario, transnational cooperation between British agencies and EU partners will be more fragile, ad hoc and less accountable.

Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones, In Spies We Trust: The Story of Western Intelligence (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013, £20.00). Pp. 312.isbn 978 0 1995 8097 2.

Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones , In Spies We Trust: The Story of Western Intelligence (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013, £20.00). Pp. 312. isbn 978 0 1995 8097 2.

Guarding EU-wide Counter-terrorism Policing: The Struggle for Sound Parliamentary Scrutiny of Europol

In its Internal Security Strategy (ISS), the European Union (EU) re-emphasised its strong commitment to fighting terrorism within its territory (Council of the European Union, 2010a). Indeed, counter-terrorism practices are not a purely domestic task anymore. In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, DC, on 11 September 2001 and subsequent terrorist incidents on European territory, ‘police institutions across the globe have proliferated their counterterrorism strategies, both domestically and abroad, while international police have likewise stepped up their campaigns’ (Deflem, 2006a, p. 241). As a regional actor, the EU quickly identified terrorism as one of the key common threats its Member States have to face in the current world (Council of the European Union, 2003, 2010a).1 The transnational nature of the threat and the realisation that ‘Europe is both a target and a base for […] terrorism’ (Council of the European Union, 2003, p. 3) are continuously referred to as justifications for increasing counter-terrorism activities at the EU level (e.g. Europol, 2008, p. 5). Key features of the EU’s fight against terrorism are, for example, anti-radicalisation measures, instruments to combat the financing of terrorism as well as the strengthening and facilitation of information- and intelligence-sharing among not only police authorities, but also other security providers, such as intelligence services (Hillebrand, 2012; Spence, 2007; Howorth, 2008).