{"id":34241,"date":"2017-09-18T06:00:40","date_gmt":"2017-09-17T20:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=34241"},"modified":"2017-09-18T09:14:37","modified_gmt":"2017-09-17T23:14:37","slug":"oz-intelligence-review-new-czar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/oz-intelligence-review-new-czar\/","title":{"rendered":"Oz intelligence review: the new Czar"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Australia is to have an Intelligence Czar. For the politicians, the Czar is the answer to the single phone call question: the Czar will be charged with giving the answers\u2014and will be answerable. The Czar will be at the peak to serve as conductor and, if needs be, a lightning conductor.<\/p>\n

Forgive the hack hyperbole of the \u2018Czar\u2019 usage\u2014some tabloid habits are too useful to forgo. As the top dog that ministers call, the Czar can make a lot of calls. The influence of the position will be broad, although its clout won\u2019t extend to the right to issue specific orders to agencies. The Czar will be no Caesar; they will sit atop a diverse federation, setting directions rather than issuing decrees, with the weapons to wrangle rather than rule. The influence will come from oversight, control of new cash, and the centralising demand for coordination\u2014and being the first one the prime minister calls.<\/p>\n

The 2017 Independent Intelligence Review<\/a> expressed the need for the Czar this way: \u2018Our major recommendation is that an Office of National Intelligence (ONI) be established in the Prime Minister\u2019s portfolio. This Office would be headed by a Director-General who would be the Prime Minister\u2019s principal adviser on matters relating to the national intelligence community.\u2019<\/p>\n

And the reason we need a Czar, according to the L\u2019Estrange\u2013Merchant review: \u2018Australia is now alone among its Five Eyes partners [US, Britain, Australia, Canada, New Zealand] in not having a single point of co-ordination for its intelligence community. Australia currently has high-class intelligence agencies, but for individual agencies and the intelligence community generally to be truly world-class the whole must be greater than the sum of the parts.\u2019<\/p>\n

The review defined the power and limits of the director-general in closing intelligence gaps, making choices among relative priorities and getting the proper mix of coverage:<\/p>\n