Towards Intelligence-Driven Peace Operations? The Evolution of UN and EU Intelligence Structures

Comprehensive intelligence support has become a key requirement in contemporary peace operations. To deal with complex security challenges, international organizations are required not only to develop relevant intelligence structures but also to integrate civilian and military information and actors within them. There is an inherent risk, however, that too much integration will water down intelligence as a concept, in so far as it becomes more difficult to protect sensitive information, sources and methods. Both the UN and the EU have sought to establish integrated intelligence structures, but with mixed results. In tracing the evolution of UN and EU intelligence, this article sheds light on the trend in international peacekeeping towards intelligence-driven operations. In bringing together new empirical knowledge about the two organizations, the article also identifies key determining factors behind the development of intelligence structures within international organizations – a capacity normally seen as belonging to the national domain. Notes Michael T. Flynn, ‘Fixing Intel: A Blueprint for Making Intelligence Relevant in Afghanistan’, report, Center for a New American Security, Washington, DC, 2010; Philip Shetler-Jones, ‘Intelligence in Integrated UN Peacekeeping Missions: The Joint Mission Analysis Centre’, International Peacekeeping, Vol.15, No.4, 2008, pp.517–27; David Carment and Martin Rudner, Peacekeeping Intelligence: New Players, Extended Boundaries, Abingdon: Routledge, 2006; Ben de Jong, Wies Platje and Robert David Steele, Peacekeeping Intelligence: Emerging Concepts for the Future, Oakton, VA: Open Source Solutions, International Press, 2003. Michael Warner, ‘Wanted: A Definition of Intelligence’, Studies in Intelligence, Vol.46, No.3, 2002, pp.1–11. Field Manual 3-24, ‘Counterinsurgency’, Washington, DC: US Army, 2006, pp.3–9. Flynn (see n.1 above), p.9. See, e.g., Walter A. Dorn, ‘Intelligence-Led Peacekeeping: The United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), 2006–2007’, Intelligence and National Security, Vol.24, No.6, 2009, pp.805–35. Cedric de Coning, ‘Implications of a Comprehensive or Integrated Approach for Training in United Nations and African Union Peace Operations’, report, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, Oslo, 2009, p.5. European Council, ‘Civil–Military Co-ordination (CMCO)’, Council doc., 14457/03, 7 Nov. 2003. See, e.g., Robert Egnell, Complex Peace Operations and Civil–Military Relations, London: Routledge, 2009; Risa A. Brooks, Shaping Strategy: The Civil–Military Politics of Strategic Assessment, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2008; Hew Strachan, ‘Making Strategy: Civil–Military Relations after Iraq’, Survival, Vol.48, No.3, 2006, pp.59–82. Conor Cruise O'Brien, To Katanga and Back: A UN Case History, London: Hutchinson, 1962, pp.75–6. For a detailed account of the MIB, see Walter A. Dorn and David J.H. Bell, ‘Intelligence and Peacekeeping: The UN Operation in the Congo, 1960–64’, International Peacekeeping, Vol.2, No.1, 1995, pp.15–16. In Paul Johnston, ‘No Cloak and Dagger Required: Intelligence Support to UN Peacekeeping’, Intelligence and National Security, Vol.12, No. 4, 1997, pp.102–12. Walter A. Dorn, ‘Intelligence at United Nations headquarters? The Information and Research Unit and the Intervention in Eastern Zaire (1996)’, in Carment and Rudner (see n.1 above), p.71. China was unwilling to share information, a prerequisite for membership. Dorn (see n.12 above), p.71. Frank van Kappen, ‘Strategic Intelligence and the United Nations’, in de Jong et al. (see n.1 above), pp.3–10; Dorn (see n.12 above), pp.67–86. UN, ‘Comprehensive Review of the Whole Question of Peacekeeping Operations in All Their Aspects’ (Brahimi Report), UN doc., A/55/305, 2000; UN, ‘Report on the Comprehensive Analysis of the Office of Military Affairs in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations’, UN doc., A/62/752, 2008. Interview, UN DPKO, New York, Feb. 2009. Dorn (see n.12 above). Interview, UN DPKO, New York, Feb. 2009. Ibid. According to UN sources, Oct. 2010. According to a 2010 policy directive, multidimensional missions shall establish a JMAC if they meet at least four out of the eight criteria (executive authority; robust military mandate; DDR/SSR programme; unstable/volatile security environment; poor cooperation with host government; presence of hostile international forces and/or other international actors; regional conflict; internal conflict). UN, ‘Policy – Joint Mission Analysis Centres (JMAC)’, DPKO/DFS, Ref 2010.3, 2010, p.3. Ibid. Ibid. The UNCT is a group of representatives of the UN funds and programmes, specialized agencies and other UN entities accredited to a country, typically focusing on governance and development. UN (see n.21 above), pp.3–4. Findings from field trips to Haiti, DRC and Liberia (2009–10), conducted by Jacob Aasland Ravndal. UN, ‘Guidelines – Joint Mission Analysis Centres (JMAC)’, DPKO/DFS, Ref 2010.7, 2010. Interview, DPKO, New York, Feb. 2009. UK and France, ‘Joint Declaration on European Defence’, Franco-British Summit, St Malo, 2–4 Dec. 1998 (at: www.atlanticcommunity.org/Saint-Malo%20Declaration%20Text.html). For a general overview of EU intelligence developments, see Björn Müller-Wille, ‘EU Intelligence Cooperation: A Critical Analysis’, Contemporary Security Policy, Vol.23, No.2, 2002, pp.61–86; EU Institute for Security Studies, For Your Eyes Only? Shaping an Intelligence Community within the EU, Paris, 2004; ‘Improving the Democratic Accountability of EU Intelligence’, Intelligence and National Security, Vol.21, No.1, 2006, pp.100–28; Björn Müller-Wille, ‘The Effect of International Terrorism on EU Intelligence Co-operation,’ Journal of Common Market Studies, Vol.46, No.1, 2008, pp.49–73; James I. Walsh, ‘Intelligence-Sharing in the European Union: Institutions Are Not Enough’, Journal of Common Market Studies, Vol.44, No.3, 2006, pp.625–43; Jelle van Buuren, ‘Secret Truth. The EU Joint Situation Centre’, report, Eurowatch, Amsterdam, 2009; João Vaz Antunes, ‘The European Union. Developing an Intelligence Capability’, Studies in Intelligence, Vol.49, No.4, 2005 (at: www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol49no4/Intelligence%20Capability_6.htm); Björn Fägersten, ‘European Intelligence Cooperation: Drivers, Interests and Institutions’, report, Swedish Institute of International Affairs, Stockholm, 2008. European Council, ‘A Secure Europe in a Better World: European Security Strategy’, Brussels, 11–12 Dec. 2003 (at: http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cmsUpload/78367.pdf). Ibid., emphasis added. See Simon Duke, ‘Intelligence, Security and Information Flows in CFSP’, Intelligence and National Security, Vol.21, No.4, 2006, p.607. Müller-Wille, (see n.29 above) p.61. Björn Müller-Wille, ‘Improving the Democratic Accountability of EU Intelligence’, Intelligence and National Security, Vol.21, No.1, 2006, p.111. Ibid. Solana quoted in Duke (see n.32 above), p.617. Duke (see n.32 above), p.619; Brian Crowe, ‘Foreign Minister of Europe’, pamphlet, Foreign Policy Centre, London, 2005, p.22; Charles Grant, ‘Intimate Relations: Can Britain Play a Leading Role in European Defence, and Keep Its Special Links to US Intelligence’, report, Centre for European Reform, London, 2000. Müller-Wille (see n.29 above), p.62. Ibid., p.63. Duke (see n.32 above), p.618. Following the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty on 1 December 2009, a joint European External Action Service, in which the external representations of the Commission and the Council were merged into one EU diplomatic corps, is set to be operational from 2011. This will constitute a potentially powerful intelligence information network for the EU's intelligence structures. Cited in Statewatch Bulletin, ‘EU: “Anti-terrorism” Legitimizes Sweeping New “Internal Security” Complex’, 28 Jan. 2005 (at: www.libertysecurity.org/article121.html). Fägersten (see n.29 above), p.58. Ibid., pp.54–5. EU Institute for Security Studies (see n.29 above), p.23. See Fägersten (n.29 above), pp. 56–7. Ibid., p.63. See Per Martin Norheim-Martinsen, ‘Managing the Civil–Military Interface in the EU: Creating an Organization Fit for Purpose’, European Integration Online Papers, Vol.14, No.1, 2010. Müller-Wille (see n.29 above), p.58. Interviews with Council Secretariat officials, June 2009. Ibid. Ibid. Interviews with Council Secretariat Officials, May–June 2009. Unpublished EUMS discussion paper in authors' possession.