ABSTRACT
This second debate about intelligence ethics is symptomatic of the troubled transformation of intelligence across much of the Western world. Intelligence services that had spent most of their time passively observing the Communist bloc in the 1980s were re-directed towards dealing with organized crime in the 1990s and then to the task of counter-terrorism after 2001. However, the changes that have occurred in the realm of intelligence are not merely about new targets. They are increasingly about action, disruption and event-shaping. Moreover, the traditional Westphalian boundaries which outline clear divisions between foreign intelligence operations and domestic surveillance are collapsing – with multiple consequences. Intelligence is becoming globalized and it is already apparent that intelligence in the context of globalization is dirty work.
