Intelligence Agencies

Brief History

The activity of intelligence gathering dates back at least to ancient Greece. Roman armies employed speculators, who collected military intelligence, and in the 15th and 16th centuries, diplomats usually intercepted dispatches and performed other tasks of espionage. By the 18th century, Great Britain maintained a network of diplomats and/or agents that closely observed French and Spanish naval bases as well as internal “Catholic threats” to the monarchy.

The first professional intelligence agency was established in 1863 by the Union forces in the American Civil War (1861–1865). The Bureau of Military Intelligence prepared evaluations of the Confederate army's strength and activities but was dissembled after the war. In the United Kingdom, permanent naval and military intelligence departments were established in the 1870s and 1880s, and in 1909 the British administration founded the Secret Service Bureau, which later became the Secret Intelligence Service, commonly known as MI6. Almost 40 years later (1947), the National Security Act under U.S. President Harry Truman established the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), now the world's largest national intelligence system with an annual spending of approximately $30 billion. Today, nearly all members of the international state system employ intelligence-gathering capabilities, who are commonly subdivided into several national agencies. The most prominent intelligence agencies are the American CIA, the British MI6, the Russian FSB, and the Israeli Mossad.

The Cold War provided the backdrop for a steady rise in intelligence activities of the superpowers and a simultaneous increase in budgets. The downfall of the Soviet Union, however, led to a temporary reduction in intelligence spending and a shift toward economic intelligence, foremost by the United States, Great Britain, and France. Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, intelligence agencies have been perceived to play a more central role in foreign policy implementation through covert and paramilitary actions against terrorists and rogue states.

Functions

Intelligence agencies execute four main functions, which can be differentiated along two dimensions: the nature of the activity (informing vs. conducting) and their locality (national vs. abroad). These functions are (1) the collection of intelligence, (2) its analysis, (3) counterintelligence, and (4) covert action.