a) find out about your own country through the study of others
b) generate empirical material you need to classify, in this case systems,
c) classification throws up similarities and differences that we need to understand, because intelligence is not an isolated activity, it reflects national constitutions and societies and is integrated into government, but with a peculiarly intimate relationship to political power
d) we will develop theory via reformulating problems in moving from our own to other cultures, understanding the other
e) while there seems to be reduced national difference and a perceived need to cooperate across borders, this increases the need for awareness of different traditions and practices f) distinctions between agencies also blurring, so need to includes police and private sectors, SSR mustn’t foist inappropriate organisations on reformers. “In the worst case, the adoption of democratic forms may actually be regressive if they simply provide a cloak of legality for unreconstructed authoritarian practices.” P. 84
Theory and empirical work are inextricably linked: “..theory is a guide to empirical exploration, a means of reflecting more or less abstractly upon complex processes of institutional evolution and transformation in order to highlight key periods or phases of change which warrant closer empirical scrutiny. Theory sensitizes the analyst to the causal processes being elucidated, selecting from the rich complexity of events the underlying mechanisms and processes of change.” p. 84 QUOTE from Hay, C Political Analysis: A Critical Introduction, Basingstoke, Palgrave 2002
2 components to surveillance – first the gathering and storing of information and second the supervision of people’s behavior. It is concerned with knowledge and power. It is not a linear relationship: sometimes knowledge is power; at others knowledge may inform the exercise of power. As with Iraq, power may determine what is knowledge.
Surveillance similarly central in non-Western societies – its philosophical basis may be different, but its core goals – understanding and control – are constant.
Secrecy is not just a defining element of intelligence because it distinguishes intelligence from other structures and processes of governance, but also because its targets – individual, organisational and state – seek to keep their affairs secret. P. 85
“Attempts to maintain personal privacy or business confidentiality are forms of resistance to the efforts of others to collect information. But if privacy fails then lying and deception are other forms of resistance. Evaluation of analysis is, in turn, an attempt to resist the attempt of others to mislead. Resistance to other forms of power such as coercion may well take on a more physical aspect but often these will be intertwined with the use of information. The central point here is that the relation between surveillance and its subjects is dialectical: efforts at gathering information and wielding power (in whatever form) will provoke greater or lesser attempts to resist. If resistance succeeds then fresh approaches to surveillance may be deployed and so on.” P. 85
Comparing organisational cultures, groupthink, collegiality, turf wars, pathologies and conflict – how do they account for successes and failures in the intelligence process? How do they reflect political culture and regime type, how do they deal with the problem of politicization?
Nelken distinguishes between being Virtually there, Researching there or Living there as ways to surmount the location in a country, culture and language that challenges us to understand the other. Pitfalls include local experts being interested as well as interesting, being fed and official view as intellectual tourists. Triangulation is required to ensure that sources are examined to provide confirmation or disconfirmation. When data is hard to come by, seriously frustrating!!