Economic Intelligence and National Security

Abstract

Intelligence is in fashion! Anytime, anywhere a threat materializes and inflicts damage on society, citizens demand their governments to respond rapidly with remedies. This triggers an increase in intelligence activities and information sharing among allied nations. However, in most cases, the public is unaware of the breadth and depth of existing threats to their well-being. The time from action to result of aggressive actions is not always short. Some threats have a long lead time from the initiation of action to demonstrable results. Although economic aggression can have presence in both the quick reacting and long lead time results, it is usually of a more subtle form of threat against a nation. In recent decades nations have migrated to a globalized world, and that participation is based on each nation’s economic interests and objectives. A strong intelligence capability focused on economic activities is essential to a nation’s security. This paper addresses the evolving role of economic intelligence in western nations and with specific focus on its current role in Spain.

A Shift in the Security Paradigm—Global Challenges: is Europe ready to meet them? Edited by J. Martín Ramírez, and Jerzy Biziewski. © 2020 Springer International. Submitted: November 14, 2019; Accepted: January 5, 2020.