ABSTRACT
An old United Nations (UN) hand once observed that ‘the UN has no intelligence’. Putting aside the deliberate ambiguity of this remark, it is certainly true that the UN does not collect, process and disseminate intelligence in the directed and comprehensive way that major powers do as a matter of course. The UN is reluctant even to use the word ‘intelligence’, preferring the term ‘information’ in order to avoid the usual connotations of subterfuge and secrecy.1 ‘Intelligence’ also implies the existence of enemies or, at least rivals – a suggestion that the UN is naturally anxious to avoid. For these and other reasons that are discussed below, the role of, and need for, intelligence capabilities in peacekeeping operations is rarely debated in either UN documents or the public literature.2
