Intelligence Practices in High-Trust Societies: Scandinavian Exceptionalism?

The INTELHUB research team has edited and contributed with several chapters to the newest book in the Routledge New Intelligence Studies series.

This book examines the dynamics of intelligence practices in the Scandinavian culture of high social cohesion and high trust.

Situated within the new body of scholarly literature, the book emphasises critical empirical investigations of intelligence practices, highlighting the specific cultural settings of such practices. By providing Scandinavian perspectives on intelligence studies, the work distinguishes Scandinavian intelligence studies from the predominant Anglo-American perspectives. Throughout the Western world, the past two decades have generated a rapid expansion of the legal mandate, funding, and capabilities of intelligence agencies which, simultaneously, have been pushed to renegotiate and renew their legitimacy and democratic mandate in response to a recurrent pattern of scandals, leaks, and failures. While these tendencies are evident also in Scandinavia, the book argues that it is important to emphasise the unique context of cohesion and trust in state agencies that differentiates Scandinavian welfare states from the American (and to a lesser extent British) contexts. This book brings together scholars from Norway, Sweden and Denmark to address the continuous renegotiation of the legitimacy of state intelligence as it plays out in a Scandinavian setting.

This book will be of interest to students of intelligence studies, Nordic politics, security studies and International Relations.

The book is now published and can be ordered here. Chapters 6, 8, and 9 (6 and 8 by INTELHUB researchers) of this book are freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com.