WHO GUARDS THE GUARDS? UNDERSTANDING THE ROLE OF INTELLIGENCE ORGANIZATIONS INSIDE DEMOCRATIC SOCIETIES
WHO GUARDS THE GUARDS? UNDERSTANDING THE ROLE OF INTELLIGENCE ORGANIZATIONS INSIDE DEMOCRATIC SOCIETIES

Summary/Abstract: The field of intelligence studies, though new in comparison to other academic disciplines has received considerable scholarly attention in the last years, mostly as a consequence of the burgeoning public awareness on the role intelligence plays in preventing or failing to prevent security threats.Nevertheless, when analysing the evolution of intelligence organizations, their successes and failures one key question remains unanswered: what role should intelligence play inside a democratic country? The obvious and most frequently presented answer is “ to prevent and counter threats to national security”. Though at first glance, the answer might be straight forth, an in-depth investigation reveals that there is very little consensus on the matter.Therefore, the aim of this study is to explore some of the foundations of democracy and intelligence, in order to shed some light on this difficult but symbiotic relationship. Using a multidisciplinary approach, combining political science and law, this paper will try to improve the understanding of the role of intelligence, both as it was designed originally, but also the mutations it has suffered with the advent of democracy.

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