Thread by @BenJaffel

Hi all🇨🇦 Bonjour à toutes/tous🇫🇷

A big thank you to @caredunton @srdjanvucetic & @uOttawaCIPS for organising this paper-friendly conference on #5EyesCIPS

My presentation is entitled: "🇬🇧's European trajectory. What's beyond the 5 Eyes?" Here we go in 16 tweets

1/ Even before Brexit, Britain was often portrayed as reluctant to fully engage with European affairs. One potential reason for this is Britain’s close relationship with the US and its other Five Eyes allies. #5EyesCIPS

2/ However, a closer analysis of practices – i.e. what intelligence professionals actually do – shows that Britain is effectively bound to Europe through intelligence networks. #5EyesCIPS

3/ How can we make sense of Britain’s European trajectory in intelligence relations at a time when most assume that Brexit will severely affect UK-EU relations and celebrate the strengthening of Britain’s bonds with the Five Eyes network? #5EyesCIPS

4/ Answering this question requires a shift from traditional conceptions about intelligence & Britain’s intelligence relations. #5EyesCIPS

5/ Intelligence Studies generally conceives intelligence as primarily about Anglo-American relations and intelligence services but has not properly seen that contemporary intelligence goes beyond intelligence services alone. #5EyesCIPS

6/ Co-authors & I conceptualise intelligence as a social space that attracts and binds a multiplicity of actors in relationships of alliance & adversity who reframe the meaning & practice of intelligence #5EyesCIPS academic.oup.com/ips/article-ab…

7/ Rethinking intelligence from a human and practical perspective, rather than as a priori ‘cycle’ generating strategic intelligence, gives a fuller picture of how we understand Britain’s intelligence connections. #5EyesCIPS

8/ Indeed, by adopting a sociological approach that interrogates social actors and their everyday practices, it becomes possible to unveil British intelligence embeddedness into European cooperation arrangements #5EyesCIPS

9/ I refocus the lenses on practices by which Anglo-European ties come to materialise and, most importantly, become incorporated into actor’s dispositions – or ‘habitus’ in Bourdieu’s words – that shape schemes of actions and perceptions. #5EyesCIPS tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.108…

10/ For example, throughout daily socialization into liaison craft, British counter-terrorism liaison officers seconded to France’s Anti-Terror Coordinating Unit develop a practical knowledge of the nuts-and-bolts of cooperation with French partners. #5EyesCIPS

11/ As such, the lived experiences of these police officers indicate that much of UK intelligence labour is about police cooperation and Europe, as I demonstrate here 👇 #5EyesCIPS
routledge.com/Anglo-European…

12/ Brexit debates have raised the question about the effects of UK’s withdrawal from the EU on intelligence cooperation, but have sidelined a more important issue – that of the relationship of intelligence with the political field. #5EyesCIPS

13/ While politicians understand the value of security, they contemplate Brexit as a means to circumvent EU decision-making on legislation about security cooperation by exiting related EU measures while negotiating a re-entry into selected ones. #5EyesCIPS

14/ Politicians’ intervention into operational matters has triggered a backlash from intelligence & security professionals, including heads of British intelligence services, usually seen as resistant to working with supranational bodies. #5EyesCIPS independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-n…

15/ They have taken a stance for the continuation of security cooperation with the EU against the position-takings of pro-Brexit politicians and those who see in Five Eyes alliances an effective alternative to European partnerships. #5EyesCIPS

16/ This political line, however, comes up against the practice in the field. Intelligence labour increasingly involves building durable ties with Europe, not to mention that the job of some professionals is precisely to work with EU internal security agencies. #5EyesCIPS