INTERCONNECTED IN PRACTICE AND INSULAR BY NATURE? THE INTERNATIONALISATION OF THE FRENCH INTELLIGENCE APPARATUS
INTERCONNECTED IN PRACTICE AND INSULAR BY NATURE? THE INTERNATIONALISATION OF THE FRENCH INTELLIGENCE APPARATUS

Summary/Abstract: In our contemporary security environment, intelligence cooperation is a strategic and vital resource shaping French strategic stature. The Bill passed in July 2015 after Paris terrorist attacks (Loi renseignement du 24 Juillet 2015) stated that with the protection of national interest, intelligence must support defence and diplomacy policies. We argue in the paper that the development of French intelligence cooperation is a response aiming at mitigating the uncertainty of the contemporary security environment. Intelligence cooperation has become a natural extension of French intelligence cycle and a means of influence. At the same time, we point out a paradox: While French intelligence services are highly interconnected and involved in numerous cooperation arrangements on a bilateral and multilateral basis, the lack of information available and academic analysis, its history and the French Strategic stature of “autonomy”, suggest that the French community remains "insular" (Rovner 2013). The French intelligence community and especially its foreign intelligence services are among the most secretive in Europe regarding cooperation arrangements, and the French Intelligence Studies are still in a state of infancy. The French intelligence cooperation should be investigated through intelligence cooperation studies, international relations theories and the following criteria: 1. Strategic priorities and security environment; 2. Established partnerships. 3. Capabilities. French services incentives to foster cooperation are driven by the likelihood of a potential partner to share information or facilities, and whether the partner shares strategic orientations and faces a common threat.

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