Intelligence and foreign policy: a comparison of British, American and Turkish intelligence systems

Abstract

One of the main arguments of this thesis is that better intelligence is needed for designing sound foreign policy. While good intelligence cannot guarantee good policy, poor intelligence frequently contributes to policy failure. Then, what are the essentials of good intelligence? How should intelligence agencies be organized? What can bring about reliable intelligence? To answer these questions two countries that are widely acknowledged to incorporate intelligence successfully into foreign policy making and implementation, namely the UK and the US, are examined in terms of the stmcture of their intelligence systems in support of foreign policy. Therefore answers to the questions of how their systems are organized, overseen and coordinated are sought in this study. Then a comparison between the UK and the USA, which are accepted to ha’>'e the highest standard in this respect, and the Turkish system is made in order to show differences between the systems. At the conclusion, based on findings from the comparison of the systems, recommendations are proposed to improve Turkish foreign intelligence capabilities.