The
fall of the Berlin Wall and the global spread of competition
have shifted part of the focus in what can be defined
as "State security" (and, consequently, the
focus intelligence and security services established for
that purpose) from the military domain and even strictly
political to the economic domain. The domination of the
economic and financial domains - including the policies
defined thereby - has changed the goals of the intelligence
services and in the area of defense, on those of the security
services (counterintelligence, in the broadest sense of
the word, i.e., counter-espionage, counter-interference,
counter-disinformation and the passive protection of secrets)
and, thereby, their organization as well. All countries
in the world include in their political agenda that aspect
of the problem, i.e., their internal and external security.
The
theme of security and industrial data collection is relatively
new and the intelligence or security services, in dealing
with the problem, cannot benefit from the type of broad
experience, which they have accumulated in the fields
of military and political security and intelligence. Therefore,
this gives rise to the need for a precise definition of
the economic competence of security and intelligence services
in order to avoid suspicion on the part of existing institutions
- such as the Central Bank, various monetary institutions,
and economy-oriented ministries (departments) - that a
new center is emerging which is capable of eroding part
of their powers. This also gives rise to concern among
private operators, who fear additional interference by
the State with their business and consequently thwart
the establishment of a robust economic and financial structure,
even while understanding, this being in their direct and
indirect interest, the need for internal security - i.e.
defense against intelligence-type attacks, in terms of
interference, or disinformation originating from foreign
centers and, in particular, from the intelligence services,
also specifically affecting other countries.
In
this historically new phase of intelligence services,
the services must endeavor to explain, as accurately as
possible, the operations related to the economic security
of the State, including a limitation clause, which will
reassure both the corporate and private centers as to
the goals being pursued. Research undertaken in a number
of countries has made it possible to identify several
categories of danger which may affect state security and
which has a specific economic origin. One category, about
which much is already known, is that of industrial espionage,
which at one time was undertaken for military purposes,
but which nowadays is done to further the economic-strategic
goals of a country.
Others
regard the impacts, on the security of the State, of changes
in the international economic order, of "anarchic"
migratory trends, biological and ecological manipulations,
cultural and religious identity crises rooted in the economy,
the economic imbalance between blocs of countries, banking
and financial crises capable of upsetting the economic
order, and economic crises capable of altering public
order.
It
should be emphasized that each of the issues listed above
has its own specific features, either traditional ones
(in other words, exclusively economic), in which case
it is dealt with by the extant private or public centers,
or new ones, which affect the security of the State and
which therefore require the intervention of intelligence
and security services. By way of example, let us examine
the issue of "anarchic" (illegal) immigration;
the consideration of its effects on the labor market and
on the ordinary crime rate is entrusted to economic policy
authorities and those charged with safeguarding public
order. However, they become the concern of intelligence
and security services if the body of legal and illegal
immigration conceals terrorist elements aiming to subvert
of the democratic order and the well-being of the citizens
and threaten the economic-financial balance of the state
and its interests. These issues and the related activities
demand the development of an appropriate foreign economic-financial
policy of the State; hence the need for a reform of the
concept and structure - not only of security operations,
but also of economic-financial intelligence, collection,
analysis and dissemination of information acquired abroad
or related to foreign subjects, overt and covert alike.
Since
the matters enumerated are of interest to more than one
center, it is indispensable to ensure the cooperation
of all, and therefore the services must ensure that they
do not violate the limits of the authorization, and must
issue such instructions to the centers which are in actual
possession of information that they need, in order to
discharge their respective intelligence and security operations.
Within
such a framework, a clearer distinction between the collection
of information, which must be centralized for reasons
of economy of scale, and their processing, which is the
key underlying the success of intelligence and security
services - and decision-making based on available facilities,
will make it possible to evaluate overall intelligence
activities, defensive and offensive ones like.
