Electronic surveillance

Five Eyes Wide Shut: GCHQ Withdraws From the World?

Intelligence work is typically long, laborious and uncertain. It requires years of patience and is ill suited to the reactionary political environment of this decade. Whether in London or Washington, it is little surprise that seismic global events such as the Arab Spring or the Russia-Ukraine conflict take politicians by surprise. A focus on domestic security means a politicized intelligence apparatus. The national security communities in London and to a lesser extent Washington seem to have forgotten the lost art of risk management. Terrorists do not represent an existential threat to either country. Nuclear-armed nation states do.