Trust and mistrust in European and transatlantic intelligence cooperation as cause and consequence: a framework for analysis

The literature frequently mentions (mis-)trust as a key factor in explaining whether and what kind of international intelligence cooperation is possible. However, dominant rationalist accounts tend to oversimplify trust, say little about its evolution, damage and repair, and conflate inter-state and inter-organisational trust. This framing article for the special issue conceptualises trust as a graduated concept that plays out differently across phases, degrees and levels of intelligence cooperation. We argue that rationalist, sociological and historical institutionalist approaches can complement each other to explain trust dynamics and how these may impact Euro-Atlantic intelligence cooperation during times of growing distrust.