Did Waldegrave Work? The Impact of Open Government upon British History

The Impact of the waldegrave Initiative on Open Government uponBritish History is examined and placed within the wider frameworkof changes in Whitehall, which might be interpreted as a shifttowards transparency, or alternatively towards more sophisticated‘information control’. The areas of intelligencehistory, nuclear history and international history are examinedin detail and used to suggest that while their broad contoursremain largely unchanged, specific subjects that were once inaccessiblecan now be tackled. The mundane nature of some of the materialhitherto withheld for exceptional periods sheds light not onlyon the period that it documents, but also on the absurd andfantastical secrecy of the government in the 1980s, which continuedto keep eighteenth century records under lock and key, claimingtheir continued sensitivity. The workaday world of the DepartmentalRecord Officer is considered and found to be suffering badlyfrom the strains of under-resourcing The significant problemsthat are identified here, it is argued, will be exacerbatedby the arrival of Freedom of Information Legislation     

The 100 billion dollar brain: central intelligence machinery in the UK and the US

The ‘Five Eyes’ alliance, led by the United States, spends close to 100 billion dollars a year on intelligence. This review article argues that western countries are distinguished by their sophisticated approach to the making of intelligence‐led national security policy. Political leaders and policy‐makers who access this sensitive material are often involved in elaborate systems that constitute part of the core executive and which seek to task and improve the intelligence leviathan. Western intelligence therefore has a ‘central brain’ that devotes considerable energy to both analysis and management. By contrast, in the majority of other states around the world, the orientation of intelligence has often been inward facing, with a high priority given to regime security. Some would suggest that intelligence has been an important component of western power projection, while others would argue that this process has been over‐expensive and has under‐delivered, not least in the last decade. Either way, the debates about development of the central intelligence machinery that supports western security policies are of the first importance and fortunately this discussion has been advanced by the appearance of several valuable new studies: these are discussed in this review article.     

Contending cultures of counterterrorism: transatlantic divergence or convergence?

Terrorist attacks on the United States, Spain and the United Kingdom have underlined the differing responses of Europe and the United States to the 'new terrorism'. This article analyses these responses through the prism of historically determined strategic cultures. For the last four years the United States has directed the full resources of a 'national security' approach towards this threat and has emphasized unilateralism. Europe, based on its own past experience of terrorism, has adopted a regulatory approach pursued through multilateralism. These divergences in transatlantic approaches, with potentially major implications for the future of the relationship, have appeared to be mitigated by a revised American strategy of counterterrorism that has emerged during 2005. However, this article contends that while strategic doctrines may change, the more immutable nature of strategic culture will make convergence difficult. This problem will be compounded by the fact that neither Europe nor America have yet addressed the deeper connections between terrorism and the process of globalization.