A Charles Sturt University (CSU) academic has found that governance remains weak in many national security and policing agencies, hampering intelligence gathering, analysis and the sharing of information.

 

A former intelligence officer, Dr Patrick F Walsh is a Senior Lecturer in Intelligence and Security Studies in the University's Australian Graduate School of Policing and Security.

 

In research for his PhD, Dr Walsh explored what makes intelligence effective in its national security and policing contexts.  The PhD built on research developed in his 2011 book, Intelligence and Intelligence Analysis (Routledge, UK).

 

He said of the key enabling activities which produce good intelligence, governance was the most important. But his research led him to conclude governance was still weak in many agencies that make up the 'Five Eyes' intelligence communities.

 

"Governance is about how the leadership of our intelligence agencies, and their political masters, manage change in ways that allow intelligence to adapt and remain effective as the security environment changes," he said.

 

"The fall-out from the leaks by former US intelligence analyst Edward Snowden showed stronger governance is needed to balance public concerns about privacy and transparency with the need for agencies to go about their work without revealing sensitive operational material."

 

Of the many themes and issues explored in his research, Dr Walsh posed the key question - what makes intelligence effective in the post 9/11 security environment?  

 

"Now that we live in a world of 'global outlaws' rather than the neatly defined state threats which marked the Cold War era, how do we know if the reform efforts underway in our intelligence agencies are effective and sustainable?," he said. 

 

Dr Walsh reflected on his own experiences working in national security and policing environments, and interviewed 60 senior intelligence officials from countries that make up the 'Five Eyes' intelligence community:  Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and USA.

 

"The results of the interviews enabled me to develop a theoretical framework, which I refer to as 'the effective intelligence framework', as a way to think about what are the essential ingredients for better intelligence in our agencies and across our intelligence communities," Dr Walsh said.  

 

He said key enabling activities include governance, tasking and coordination, ICT, human resources, legislation, and research. 

 

"When I looked at the data coming in from the interviews it suddenly clicked that out of all these elements 'governance' is the most important," he said. 

 

"Intelligence just doesn't happen. The production of good intelligence for senior decision-makers relies on so many things: good tasking and direction, targeted collection, and really skilled people (analysts) who can put all the bits of the puzzle together. 

 

"But effective intelligence is also about how all these elements of intelligence production are supported." 

 

Read more about Dr Walsh in CSU News here.