Description
This paper seeks to examine how ideas of legitimacy within EU intelligence liaison frameworks are placed vis-à-vis the tangible outcomes governments seek out of it. Defining ‘legitimacy’ as the shared European political norms and values purportedly embodied by the EU, the study interrogates the interaction between these two forces by examining why bilateral and multilateral intelligence-sharing among EU member-states persists despite formal institutions for intelligence liaison at the collective EU level being available. Using an overarching cybernetic epistemological framework, it argues that ideas of legitimacy within EU intelligence liaison have been subordinated to member-states’ pursuit of tangible strategic deliverables. It notes that emphasis on the latter guides their use of formal EU bodies to determine collective strategic focus in line with national interests, while seeking to address shared security concerns through more active intelligence-sharing via more informal groupings. By dissecting the trade-offs between strategic deliverables sought from intelligence liaison and the logics of legitimacy underwriting it in this manner, the study makes an original contribution to the undertheorised yet increasingly policy-relevant field of literature on intelligence diplomacy as a dimension of contemporary international relations.
