ABSTRACT
Intelligence operations are increasingly so intermingled amongst states that it is no longer suitable to consider them strictly through a domestic lens, whether from a strategic perspective or a supervisory perspective. This evolution in the essential character of intelligence activity poses serious challenges for democratic oversight, with its conventional domestic viewfinder. One mechanism of democratic oversight that is playing an emerging accountability role – the domestic ad hoc or special inquiry – illustrates many of these challenges. This chapter considers the experience of several recent special inquiries, and the extent to which they have fulfilled their accountability roles. It discusses in particular the challenges that they have encountered due to the international nature of the agency activities they have scrutinised, and asks whether domestic inquiries into international intelligence operations may in fact lead to accountability paradoxes. That is, in attempting to shine a bright light on international intelligence activities, domestic inquiries lead to processes and outcomes that provide less transparency and accountability and less public reassurance and confidence. The chapter concludes by considering possibilities for improving the accountability potential of domestic inquiries into international intelligence operations.
