ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the origins and development of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) intelligence after 1949 and the circumstances and debate over the establishment of the NATO Economic Committee in 1957. It explores the role and priorities of the NATO Economic Committee in the years before the attacks of 9/11. The chapter argues that NATO economic intelligence during 2001 to 2014 was a crucial but essentially neglected dimension of the NATO intelligence process both before and after the demise of the NATO Economic Committee in 2010. It shows that the revitalisation of NATO economic intelligence is critical, given multiple disruptive and accelerating technological and security trends, accompanied by the substantial deterioration in NATO Russia relations since 2014 and ongoing instability in Afghanistan, the Middle East and North Africa and the Gulf. The Economic Committee assessed the outcomes and implications of the periodic meetings of the NATO Russia Permanent Joint Council Meeting as well as the meetings of NATO Ukraine Commission.
