The ‘Global Intelligence Community’ refers to the collective group of alliances or organisations who provide mutually beneficial intelligence support and assist each other globally.

In recent years ‘the global intelligence community’ has expanded significantly to include the intelligence agencies and organisations from various countries all around the world.

Whilst the practice of intelligence continues in secret, more and more countries are reaching out to one another and sharing information on ever expanding ‘global issues’.

The global intelligence community is not an officially sanctioned group, nor is there a collective headquarters – it refers more to the collective understanding that intelligence organisations need to collaborate global trends and issues.

One of the more prolific global trends has been the uptake of online radicalisation from terrorists groups such as ISIS. Countries around the world have seen increasing numbers of people leaving their homelands to travel to places like Iraq and Syria after being radicalised via the internet.

As a result, Intelligence agencies throughout the world are working closely to identify potential threats.

How Difficult Is It For Intelligence Agencies To Work Together? 

 The Global Intelligence Community is akin to herding cats.

Due to competing interests and priorities, no one intelligence organisation is the same. As each country manages their intelligence priorities differently, their approach

In the past decade, there’s been a consistent drive promoting of ‘intelligence sharing’ amongst agencies and various countries. Since 9/11 alliances were formed on the back of the ‘War on Terror’ which saw a coalition of countries contribute resources to combating terrorist groups such as the Taliban in Afghanistan and Al-Qaeda in Iraq.

The threat of Global Terrorism has given rise to International Intelligence Alliances.

Can Intelligence Agencies Share Information?

For the most part yes. Intelligence agencies actively engage in the sharing of information that is mutually beneficial. Whilst a common agreement accepts that intelligence sources remain undisclosed – information and assessments are shared to achieve common goals.

Today there seems a sentiment amongst intelligence professionals that each nation will conduct intelligence collection using their unique sources, methods and access.

It’s now quiet common for countries to deploy declared intelligence professionals as intelligence liaison officers to provide greater access to information from agencies abroad.

In essence, the ‘global intelligence community’ is a broad network of intelligence organisations who provide mutual support to combat global threats.

Intelligence agencies (also known as ‘Intelligence Services’) are organisations responsible for the planning, collection, analysis and distribution of certain types of intelligence.

There are numerous different intelligence agencies – each assigned with a different, role, responsibility or collection requirement.

Intelligence agencies are unique. Their requirement will determine their role. Depending on each requirement, an Intelligence agency will utilise different collection methods to satisfy their information requirements.

Intelligence agencies can be organised by their requirement to produce a certain ‘type’ of intelligence; for example, foreign information collection, military intelligence, or law enforcement.

Intelligence Agencies can also be assigned the management and control for a certain intelligence collection capability. For example, The U.S. National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGIA) is the tasking authority for the control, management and collection of satellite reconnaissance imagery.

Single source agencies are sometimes created as the guardians of a particular ‘type’ of intelligence or discipline. Such as the United States National Security Agency (NSA) being the premier ‘SIGINT’ collection agency for the United States intelligence community.