The Liddell diaries and British intelligence history

This article discusses the wartime diaries of Guy Liddell of MI5. It argues that they are a crucial source for the study of wartime intelligence history, not only in respect of MI5 but also of other British secret agencies, particularly MI6 and SOE. Written in an accessible style, the diaries cast much new light on personalities, events, discussions and decisions both on operational matters and on questions of high policy, including relations with foreign intelligence services, debate on postwar intelligence priority and organization, and ministerial involvement in intelligence and security issues. In their breadth of coverage and information, their treatment of opinions and personalities, their abundance of detail and their fresh and unguarded prose, they are far more interesting, more accurate and more authoritative than either the various in-house MI5 section histories which have been opened to research in recent years, or the Hinsley Simkins volume of the official history of British intelligence. They are as significant a source for intelligence history as are the Cadogan diaries for the study of British foreign policy between 1939 and 1945. The article also points to inconsistencies in redaction throughout the diaries, and to other questions arising from the appearance of this crucial source.     

British intelligence in the twentieth century

SIR STEPHEN LANDER, the Director-General of the Security Service, describes his Service's approach to the management of its archives which is based on its obligations under the 1958 Public Record Act. In this article, he indicates the quantity and type of records held by the Service and, illustrating with some examples, explains his Service's current file retention and release policies. The systematic programme of file releases to the Public Records Office, begun by the Security Service in 1997, has resulted in a considerable amount of intelligence archive material being placed in the public domain.     

Bringing accountability for results to government in British Columbia

In British Columbia, Canada, an initiative is underway to introduce results-focused accountability reporting for government ministries and Crown corporations. This significant change is coming about through a unique collaboration of government, the Legislative Assembly, and the Office of the Auditor General of British Columbia. This article describes: the background leading to the initiative; the conceptual framework, including the areas of government covered by the initiative and the methods of accountability reporting; the issues around implementation of results-focused government, including education and cultural change at administrative and political levels; and the success of the initiative to date. While the real success of this initiative will only be evident in a few years' time, the coming together of many parts of government to develop a common vision of what government should look like, and the development of a better understanding by all the parties to this process of one another's position and priorities, are already paying dividends.     

Cyclical accountability

Public Choice - A new wave of protectionism is threatening the open and cooperative international order. This paper applies evolutionary game theory to analyze the stability of international trade...     

Dartmouth,Sir Mansfield Cumming and the origins of the British intelligence community

This article uses original archive material to trace the connection between two processes of institutional development that was to result in the British intelligence Community becoming an integral part of government. The first process was the development in the latter part of the nineteenth century of a scheme of education and training for naval cadets at Dartmouth. The importance of this scheme is that it gives, through the Records of Progress and Conduct, a unique insight into the qualities that the first two heads of Britain's foreign intelligence service, and the first head of Britain's signals intelligence unit brought to their respective posts. This article argues that there are a number of timeless and vital competencies which cadets Smith, Sinclair and Hall displayed, albeit in embryonic form, that were critical, later on, in propelling their respective organizations to the centre of government. This is the second process of institutionalization. It is a position that they still occupy today.     

Soviet intelligence,British security and the end of the Red Orchestra: The Fate of Alexander Rado

Jeffrey T. Richelson and Desmond Ball, The Ties that Bind: Intelligence Cooperation between the UKUSA Countries (London: George Allen &; Unwin 1986). Pp. xviii + 402. £19.95.

Giuseppe De Lutiis, Storia dei Servizi Segreti in Italia (Rome: Editori Riuniti, 1985). Pp. 313, Lire 16,500.

Scott D. Breckenridge, The CIA and the U.S. Intelligence System (Boulder, CO; Westview Press, Frederick A. Praeger). Pp. 364.

Phillip Thurmond Smith, Policing Victorian London. Political Policing, Public Order, and the London Metropolitan Police (Westport, CT and London: Greenwood Press, 1985). Pp. x + 230. £35.

Charles Perrow, Normal Accidents: Living with High‐Risk Technologies (New York: Basic Books, 1984). Pp. 386. $10.95.     

Electoral accountability in a country with two-tiered government

In democracies, elections are the primary mechanism for making politicians act in voters?? interests, but voters are unable to prevent that some resources are diverted to political rents. With two levels of government, the rents are reduced if voters require higher beneficial public expenditures for reelecting incumbents. Voters can also strengthen their power by holding politicians liable also for decisions made by the other level of government. When the incumbent at one level acts as a Stackelberg leader with respect to the other, there is no risk of this leading to Leviathan policies on the part of the incumbents.