Description
This article explores the Anglo-American intelligence relationship in order to understand how it responds to radical leadership changes that hinder the trust and predictability among the parties. Following the second election of Donald Trump as President of the USA, the British intelligence community revealed doubts and resistances about sharing intelligence with the USA. The Trump administration’s choices in appointing intelligence Directors, its decision to suspend intelligence sharing with Ukraine, and its hostile stance even with its historical partners raise questions about the “special relationship” ’s ability to overcome crises and adapt.
By applying a sociological-relational lens to intelligence cooperation, this article unveils the UK-US’ “special relationship” to be composed of three layers: the inter-polity one, in which governments interact with each other on matters of intelligence and security; the inter-agency one, and the inter-personal one, where practitioners work with each other or share intelligence. Building on previous research, this article explores how these layers of the cooperative relation respond differently to crises and changes, due to the different ways trust and cooperation are understood and set up in each level. Through interviews with British and American intelligence practitioners, alongside the analysis of primary and secondary literature, this work reaches two findings. The first speaks of the importance of lower-level intelligence sharing relations, such as the interpersonal and inter-agency ones, whose path dependencies and reputations are slower to build but also to erode. Secondly, from a theoretical perspective, the article identifies the various components that make a partner predictable, and offers insight into the mitigating factors that help against unpredictability.
