ABSTRACT
Some operating environments are more hostile than others, raising costs and heightening risk. Exploring for secret intelligence may prove an equally expensive, time-consuming and ultimately fruitless exercise. With a sober and informed awareness of nature and purpose of intelligence, practitioners can move to a consideration of when, where, how, why and if intelligence can support foreign policy formulation and the practice of diplomacy. Consider the costs of secret intelligence: collecting it undetected, validating it, understanding it, making sense of it, evaluating it, integrating it, protecting it, educating the users. The presentation’s main thesis is that secret intelligence is highly contingent. Secret intelligence is information obtained by governments usually without the knowledge of the target, to obtain privileged insights not available by other means. Without a setting and framework to shape and tame the production, dissemination and understanding of intelligence, it loses its value to policy-makers and decision-takers.
