Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface to the First Edition
- Preface to the Second Edition
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Conceiving Foreign Policy
- 3 The Policy Process
- 4 The Foreign Policy Bureaucracy
- 5 The Executive
- 6 The Overseas Network
- 7 The Australian Intelligence Community
- 8 The Domestic Landscape
- 9 The International Policy Landscape
- 10 Australia's Place in the World
- 11 Australia's Security
- 12 Australia's Prosperity
- 13 Values and Australian Foreign Policy
- 14 Conclusion: The End of Foreign Policy?
- Appendix
- Glossary
- Index
7 - The Australian Intelligence Community
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface to the First Edition
- Preface to the Second Edition
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Conceiving Foreign Policy
- 3 The Policy Process
- 4 The Foreign Policy Bureaucracy
- 5 The Executive
- 6 The Overseas Network
- 7 The Australian Intelligence Community
- 8 The Domestic Landscape
- 9 The International Policy Landscape
- 10 Australia's Place in the World
- 11 Australia's Security
- 12 Australia's Prosperity
- 13 Values and Australian Foreign Policy
- 14 Conclusion: The End of Foreign Policy?
- Appendix
- Glossary
- Index
Summary
It is probably not surprising that much of the limited amount of writing on Australia's intelligence agencies has concentrated on what is most distinctive about them – their secrecy and culture – rather than their place in public administration. Most analysis has focussed on their technical capabilities, their external links, their relationship with politicians and the political process, and the culture of intelligence.
This way of looking at the agencies has been reinforced by the mystification and sometimes excessive secrecy in which they have traditionally wrapped themselves, and by the media's willing suspension of disbelief when reporting on many intelligence matters. As commissioners Samuels and Codd commented in their 1995 report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Australian Secret Intelligence Service: “The fascination which journalists apparently feel for secret organizations tends to expel judgment and restraint”.
This chapter looks at the intelligence agencies in a different way, as part of the Australian foreign policy making machinery. It describes their structure and functions, their links with overseas agencies and their relationships with Australian policy-makers in order to answer the question, “How do the intelligence agencies influence the formulation and implementation of Australian foreign policy?” Would Australian foreign policy be different if we did not have this particular intelligence community? We also examine the recent controversies surrounding the Australian Intelligence Community (AIC), including those claiming it has become “politicised”, and discuss some of the reforms to the AIC as a response to new demands and criticisms.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Making Australian Foreign Policy , pp. 117 - 142Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007