By Eric Denécé
Denécé Eric, the director of the French Center for Research on Intelligence (CF2R), author of Understanding everything: Secret Services (EPA, 2008), explains why the measures announced in the White Paper on Defence and security must be conceived as the starting point for the recovery of information and not as a result.
The recent White Paper on Defence clearly displays the new government priority given "intelligence and foresight, to ensure the security of our country. The number of services will be strengthened, improved recruitment and training, additional resources shall be granted them; meaningful budgets will be devoted to space intelligence, whether of imagery or interceptions, a diplomat coordinate, from this summer, service activities, as part of a National Intelligence Council (CNR) installed as president.
For those who long argued for a recognition of the importance of intelligence is a great satisfaction. In the highly unpredictable world in which we live, never forget that "weapons are less important than the arm that holds them, the arm is less important than the will which the intelligent guide."
This is due to the awareness of the drafters of the White Paper of the need to anticipate international crises to protect our interests, our citizens and our territory. It is due also to the personal action of the President of the Republic is the first chief executive to focus on a subject that all his predecessors regarded as minor or unhealthy.
Since the creation of the Fifth Republic, no president has given the least importance to intelligence. General de Gaulle did not understand this area, however, vital to the state action and the despised George Pompidou.
Only two leaders have shown a real interest for intelligence Raymond Barre and Michel Rocard. Both had realized that "intelligence is one of the most profitable investments of the state. It is one of the fundamental functions of the national security of any rule of law and constitutes a necessary condition for prosperity. " But they were prime ministers and could never convince the Chief Executive to give this the attention that this area deserves. The fact that a President of the Republic also displays a clear commitment to a national priority intelligence needs to be emphasized.
The White Paper is not the first manifestation of interest Nicolas Sarkozy for this domain. When he was Interior Minister and presidential candidate, he proposed or supported a number of reforms that have taken shape on arrival at the Elysee: establishment of a parliamentary delegation to monitor business Intelligence; approximation of the DST and the General Intelligence (RG) appointment of qualified professionals at the head of service (Frederick Péchenard the DGPN and Bernard Squarcini the DST) will create a National Security Council attached to the Presidency etc..
While some of these reforms were proposed long ago: the transformation of the NWMO a National Security Council has debated since the 1980 merger and DST-RG at least since 1986. But nobody did. In the early 1990s, Michel Rocard, then Prime Minister and his security adviser, the prefect Remy Pautrat, tried to lead a reform: they managed to reactivate the Interdepartmental Intelligence Committee (IRC), but the police chief National opposed the merger time DST-RG and the subject did not interest Francois Mitterrand.
However, the announcement of the new priority given to information must be qualified: the delays in our services for decades requires a major effort. But the measures announced in the paper are still modest.
The space intelligence will be the main beneficiary of the new budgets. Significant investments are crucial to have interception capabilities or observation from space. This is a great decision. But this means that the departments responsible for human research will benefit only a small part of this windfall. This is worrisome, because our intelligence agencies operating abroad are in dire need of means to adapt to new challenges. Michel Rocard recalled recently in Le Figaro that the budgets that France gave the information were three times lower than those of the United Kingdom, which has over the U.S. financial and technical support. Despite the stated priority, the investments proposed by the White Paper will not, by far, to catch up.
It should be remembered that the DGSE, the leading French service, represents only 0.9% of the defense budget, which represents less than 2% of the state budget! This is small for a national priority. Moreover, despite the willingness, the Directorate Military Intelligence (DRM) will lose this year, posts in connection with the reduction in size of armies. Surprisingly, the White Paper does not mention the necessary reconciliation of the young and efficient service with the Directorate of Protection and Security of Defense (DPSD), like what has been done between the DST and RG.
Finally, a reservation must be formulated. Diplomacy is not intelligence. Whatever the personal qualities of ambassadors appointed head of the DGSE, or RSS, these are two businesses and two different purposes. As the president has done to the police, it is time to give women and men of the intelligence function steering or coordination of services.
We should rejoice that for the first time, intelligence is the subject of presidential interest and a national priority. But if a new dynamic seems to be emerging through the white paper, it should not overshadow a tangible fact: the French intelligence is undersized in terms of threats, our interests in the world and our international responsibilities .
The measures announced should be seen as the starting point for the recovery of national intelligence and not as a outcome. They do not allow us to match the average UK, Germany or Israel, a country in which the intelligence budgets are increasing continuously for many years.
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