Handbook of European Intelligence Cultures

With Chelsea Locke Edited by Bob de Graaff, James M. Nyce

Publication date:

02 August 2016

Length of book:

496 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Dimensions:

233x161mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9781442249417

National intelligence cultures are shaped by their country’s history and environment. Featuring 32 countries (such as Albania, Belgium, Croatia, Norway, Latvia, Montenegro), the work provides insight into a number of rarely discussed national intelligence agencies to allow for comparative study, offering hard to find information into one volume. In their chapters, the contributors, who are all experts from the countries discussed, address the intelligence community rather than focus on a single agency. They examine the environment in which an organization operates, its actors, and cultural and ideological climate, to cover both the external and internal factors that influence a nation’s intelligence community. The result is an exhaustive, unique survey of European intelligence communities rarely discussed.
A precise, country-by-country overview of European intelligence-gathering methods and security initiatives, this analysis reframes spying in the decades following the Cold War and the dismantling of the Berlin Wall and the rise of terrorism. By compiling commentary from 38 contributors, the editors offer differing approaches to surveillance, anti-radicalization, and border control. Charts, such as the investigative setups in Bosnia, Romania, Montenegro, Slovenia, Portugal, and Luxembourg, simplify chain of command and departmental links. Insights into the security measures of 32 countries offer a basis for comparison and for identification of strengths and weaknesses. This unusual survey of European internal defense systems pinpoints the diverse nature of ideological backgrounds and future threats. Each contributor reveals internal elements unique to politics and culture, for example, Estonia’s emerging independence from Russia, Greece’s need for technological direction, and Spain’s foreign policy in the post-Franco milieu. . . . A valuable text for large public libraries and college and university collections.