The spy network free#

In May 2021, the alliance put pressure on China for the treatment of its Uyghur population and their perception of militarisation of the South China Sea. Rather, their technical capabilities are intertwined to such an extent that, for example, the intelligence products of the NSA (the US electronic intelligence gathering agency) is almost in its entirety accessible to the UK’s counterpart (GCHQ) vice versa.Īs with any other intensive collaboration, there is sometimes disagreement within the mysterious Five Eyes network about which course they should take. Their high level of trust is not simply a matter of sharing what intelligence is relevant to the other countries.

What makes access nearly impossible for prospective third parties is the remarkable interoperability, intimacy, and interpersonal trust amongst the five countries. But why did these countries never join the Five Eyes? Along with South Korea, three other countries - Japan, India and Germany - were proposed as possible new members. Some argue that in confronting great power competition, from China and Russia, the Five Eyes countries must work closer together, as well as expand the circle of trust beyond the Anglophone world. As such the alliance was capable of sweeping up a tremendous amount of telephone calls, faxes, e-mails, and other data traffic. The alliance used surveillance arrangements to gather information from users of big technology firms such as Apple, Google and Microsoft, and from the communication of civilians directly. Terrorist organisations and precarious weapons business deals made by ‘problematic regimes’ came to fall within the scope of the Five Eyes, as well as daily efforts consisting of tracking possible sources of other non-conventional threats. Decades later, a widespread response after 9/11 allowed for further expansion of their surveillance capabilities due to the fear instilled by the threat of terrorism. This surveillance arrangement was initially developed to monitor the military and diplomatic communications of the Soviet Union. As the Cold War intensified in the 1960s, the intelligence sharing agreement became formalised under the ECHELON surveillance system. In terms of the content of the intelligence, the focus of Five Eyes is strongly intertwined with the threat perception of the member states. Hence, the ‘final product’ is generally a result of intelligence gathering practices of several members of the network. During the Cold War, Great Britain highly benefited from the other members who provided complementary intelligence for tracking Soviet submarines with ballistic missiles in the North Atlantic and the North Sea. The U.S., unsurprisingly gathers intelligence in all corners of the world, including the aforementioned ones covered by the UK.

The spy network free#

But although each country focuses on a specific region, the Five Eyes members are free to gather intelligence in other areas to support their allies. For example, Britain focuses on intelligence collection in Europe, Western Russia and the Middle East. What also characterises the Five Eyes alliance is that each country has a different area it focuses its “eye” on. These elements unify their efforts and foster mutual trust, indispensable to sharing highly sensitive intelligence. Beyond that, since the Second World War the five members have faced some similar threats to their national security, for example, the ever-present peril of nuclear annihilation during the Cold War. These countries share similar socio-cultural systems and common law principles, as well as liberal democratic values and geopolitical goals. The agreement was extended to include Canada in 1948, and Australia and New Zealand in 1956, thereby creating what is now known as the Five Eyes network. Declassified UKUSA documents confirm that it was later deemed useful to include more English-speaking members. Originally called the UKUSA, this British-US communication agreement was created one year after the second World War ended to deepen the relationship between the two victorious countries. The network remains, to this day, one of the most complex and powerful intelligence-sharing networks in the world, but where do they come from? But what do real-life spy networks look like? One of the most spy-movie-like networks is ‘Five Eyes’, a cooperation between five English-speaking countries, sharing intelligence from all around the world, using various means to obtain it. When we hear the term ‘spy network’, we usually think of James Bond or another spy movie. Spy networks have always been a mystery to the outside world.