Intelligence and EU External Relations: Operational to Constitutive Politics

Abstract

In terms of the overall theme of this volume, the external aspects of intelligence stand out since some of the case studies below suggest a somewhat counter-intuitive reversal of the progression of constitutive to operational politics encountered elsewhere. One of the main reasons for this can be found in the very character of intelligence and the sharing of sensitive information. Since much of the analysis of intelligence derives from the member states, any exchanges require a good deal of operational confidence building before the constitutive or more formal structural and institutional aspects emerge. The reversal of the normally anticipated constitutive to operational sequencing also has a bearing on openness, transparency, and democratic control. In these specific cases, the willingness to exchange information and the veracity of such exchanges often depend precisely on the absence of overly formal controls or oversight. It is also worth noting that where institutionalization of information processes does eventually take place, it is often of a loose variety with, on occasion, not even a legal basis.