The article NATO Intelligence Sharing in the 21st Century written by Mahoney et al., (2013) describes the capabilities and obstacles facing different NATO members namely Germany, France, Italy and Turkey in sharing intelligence with other member states including the United States. The author notes that there is no single member state that can independently gather intelligence at all times, emphasizing the need for continuous sharing of intelligence among states. The author investigates the capabilities of the four countries in collecting and sharing tactical and actionable intelligence and ranks the different countries according to their capabilities. In terms of ranking, Germany is ranked as the most reliable NATO member state because it shares similar strategic concerns with other NATO alliances including the United States. Besides, the author portrays Germany as a committed partner in the ratification of international treaties and multicultural organizations, which makes it a credible source of intelligence. France follows the rank due to its commitment to share intelligence as a way of exerting its position in NATO and as an elite member of the alliance. Further, Turkey is touted as the most attractive NATO member willing to share intelligence due to its proximate position in the fight against global terrorism. However, it was found to be the most difficult state the the United States and other member countries may wish to share intelligence with due to its relationship with China, Iran, and Russia because the three countries are opposed to some NATO policies. Finally, Italy is ranked as the most willing nation to share intelligence; however, the author notes that it is the least attractive nation in sharing intelligence because of its weak cyber security and small budget on intelligence collection. In essence, NATO depends on the capability of individual members states for intelligence; therefore, its inability to collect intelligence independently is the great undoing for the alliance.
The United States has been fundamental in sharing intelligence with NATO. In fact, NATO’s operational successes in Libya depended heavily on intelligence shared by the U.S, which is one way of explaining the effectiveness of U.S in sharing intelligence. U.S gives intelligence as it gets; however, it is keen on sharing intelligence with some NATO member states such as Turkey and Germany due to their relationship with China, Russia, and Iran because the three countries are opposed to some of the United States’ foreign policies and have weak cybercrime policies.
References
Mahoney, Keenan, Joshua Rovner, Nemanja Mladenovic, Salvador Molina, Adam Scher, Selma Stern, and Christopher Zoia. "NATO Intelligence Sharing in the 21 st Century." Columbia School of International and Public Affairs Capstone Research Project, Spring 2013
