This book explores the challenges leaders in intelligence communities face in an increasingly complex security environment and how to develop future leaders to deal with these issues.

As the security and policy-making environment becomes increasingly complicated for decision-makers, the focus on intelligence agencies 'to deliver' more value will increase. This book is the first extensive exploration of contemporary leadership in the context of intelligence agencies, principally in the 'Five Eyes' nations (i.e. Australia, United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and New Zealand). It provides a grounded theoretical approach to building practitioner and researcher understanding of what individual and organisational factors result in better leadership. Using interviews from former senior intelligence leaders and a survey of 208 current and former intelligence leaders, the work explores the key challenges that leaders will likely face in the twenty-first century and how to address these. It also explores what principles are most likely to be important in developing future leaders of intelligence agencies in the future.

This book will be of much interest to students of intelligence studies, strategic studies, leadership studies, security studies, and international relations.

About the Author

Patrick F. Walsh is an Associate Professor in Intelligence and Security Studies, Charles Sturt University, Australia, and is a former intelligence analyst.

Reviews

"This carefully-researched book is an important contribution to the scholarship on intelligence. Its focus is leadership, and it provides a theoretical framework for understanding the challenges intelligence leaders will face, broadening the definition of leadership to include ethics, self-awareness and, critically, transformation. Intelligence agencies have not been badly led -- I say as someone having led one -- but I hope Walsh's book with contribute to a more open debate about how future leaders should be prepared when information multiplies by the second, technology offers dramatic possibilities, both good and bad, and private intelligence providers are both competitors and potential collaborators."-- Gregory F. Treverton former Chair, U.S. National Intelligence Council, now Professor of the Practice of International Relations and Spatial Sciences, University of Southern California, USA.

"Australian scholar Patrick F. Walsh is one of the most thoughtful contributors to our understanding of how the Intelligence Communities within the Five Eyes nations operate, and how they might improve their performance. In this volume, his third book on intelligence, Professor Walsh impressively lays out important principles of intelligence leadership and governance, then skillfully applies them to the challenge of overcoming the fragmentation that afflicts these organizations. He addresses many other vital leadership problems, too, including the difficulties that accompany the wise integration of Artificial Intelligence and ethical considerations into leadership practices within these unique organizations. The intelligence organizations of the Five Eyes face many institutional obstacles as they confront---separately and together---the many threats that face the world, from terrorism and pandemics to the national security implications of climate change and failing states. Good leadership will be vital and Patrick Walsh lights the way."-- Dr. Loch K. Johnson, Regents Professor Emeritus, School of Public and International Affairs, University of Georgia, USA.

"This carefully-researched book is an important contribution to the scholarship on intelligence. Its focus is leadership, and it provides a theoretical framework for understanding the challenges intelligence leaders will face, broadening the definition of leadership to include ethics, self-awareness and, critically, transformation. Intelligence agencies have not been badly led -- I say as someone having led one -- but I hope Walsh's book with contribute to a more open debate about how future leaders should be prepared when information multiplies by the second, technology offers dramatic possibilities, both good and bad, and private intelligence providers are both competitors and potential collaborators."-- Gregory F. Treverton former Chair, U.S. National Intelligence Council, now Professor of the Practice of International Relations and Spatial Sciences, University of Southern California, USA.

"Australian scholar Patrick F. Walsh is one of the most thoughtful contributors to our understanding of how the Intelligence Communities within the Five Eyes nations operate, and how they might improve their performance. In this volume, his third book on intelligence, Professor Walsh impressively lays out important principles of intelligence leadership and governance, then skillfully applies them to the challenge of overcoming the fragmentation that afflicts these organizations. He addresses many other vital leadership problems, too, including the difficulties that accompany the wise integration of Artificial Intelligence and ethical considerations into leadership practices within these unique organizations. The intelligence organizations of the Five Eyes face many institutional obstacles as they confront---separately and together---the many threats that face the world, from terrorism and pandemics to the national security implications of climate change and failing states. Good leadership will be vital and Patrick Walsh lights the way."-- Dr. Loch K. Johnson, Regents Professor Emeritus, School of Public and International Affairs, University of Georgia, USA

'Overall, for those within the leadership (and aspiring leadership) cadres of the Intelligence Community, this book provides a welcome and solid foundation upon which practitioners of Intelligence can begin the construction of a more systematic leadership development program, while also developing their own leadership attributes. For those within the scholarly community, this book offers an excellent insight into the challenges and opportunities facing leaders in the Intelligence Community.'--Lewis Sage-Passant, Intelligence and National Security, Vol. 37(5), 2022

Book Information
ISBN 9780367650612
Author Patrick F. Walsh
Format Paperback
Page Count 204
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 520g