{"id":60139,"date":"2020-11-01T13:00:47","date_gmt":"2020-11-01T02:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=60139"},"modified":"2020-11-01T11:55:51","modified_gmt":"2020-11-01T00:55:51","slug":"the-australian-secret-intelligence-service-purposes-and-principles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-australian-secret-intelligence-service-purposes-and-principles\/","title":{"rendered":"The Australian Secret Intelligence Service: purposes and principles"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"688\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-59970\" src=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/symonasis2310-scaled-e1603430691104.jpg\" \/><\/figure>\n<blockquote><p>\u2018Spies cannot be usefully employed without a certain intuitive sagacity. They cannot be properly managed without benevolence and straightforwardness. Without subtle ingenuity of mind, one cannot make certain of the truth of their reports. Be subtle! Be subtle! And use your spies for every kind of business.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">\u2014 Sun Tzu, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/suntzusaid.com\/book\/13\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The art of war<\/a><\/em>, circa 500\u00a0BC<\/p>\n<p>Spies go in and out of fashion, but they never go out of business. And in the second of our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/report\/asis-interviews\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">interviews<\/a>, Australia\u2019s top spy discusses how that business is conducted today.<\/p>\n<p>The director-general of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service, Paul Symon, talks about the purposes of ASIS:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">spying to collect human intelligence overseas<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">engaging in intelligence diplomacy through partnerships and exchanges with foreign intelligence services around the world<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">conducting disruption and counterintelligence activities as directed by the Australian government.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/TJXypaseHIA\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The ASIS ambit runs from terrorists to people smugglers, from the nature of foreign leaders to the operational needs of the Australian Defence Force.<\/p>\n<p>The jargon for what the service seeks is HUMINT (human intelligence), still searching for the \u2018foreknowledge\u2019 Sun Tzu so prized 2,500 years ago\u2014to understand the nature of individuals and the thinking of governments, as Symon observes:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Humans will develop trusting relationships and share secrets\u2014they are willing to build a relationship with a service like ours that cultivates, recruits and validates them. There is a relationship that builds. So when you\u2019re trying to understand senior leaders around the region, or further afield, you\u2019re trying to understand the way they\u2019re thinking, their vision for their country, the risks that they see, and the opportunities they see. Those sorts of conversations are normally held in inner circles, and are between humans, and will always be that way.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The job of ASIS officers deployed overseas is to develop agents willing to share secrets. Why are people willing to betray their country\u2019s secrets? Symon\u2019s response:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I would argue that if you\u2019re in a closed society then there is a stronger possibility that you will be concerned about the direction of the country. If people become leaders of everything in their country, if power is concentrated and centralised, then ultimately you become responsible for everything. And you actually become responsible for the way in which your citizens perceive leadership.<\/p>\n<p>So there is an interesting medium- to long-term dimension to this; as a general rule, closed societies run the risk of a greater number of individuals willing to betray the secrets of their country, because they are not happy, they don\u2019t get a voice. We get a voice every three years, we go down to the local school and we vote. But there are a lot of people that don\u2019t. That is one motivation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>ASIS is \u2018playing attack\u2019 overseas, Symon says, and while the margins between attack and defence are close, \u2018we believe that we still have a marginal advantage\u2019 in getting secrets.<\/p>\n<p>Technology shifts the tradecraft, in an era of great-power competition driving a multipolar contest. Much is happening in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/australias-strategic-update-by-the-numbers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u2018grey zone\u2019<\/a> (an area of focus of Australia\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defence.gov.au\/strategicupdate-2020\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">2020 strategic update<\/a>). Symon explains:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The grey zone really is increasingly being used in the lexicon to reflect the fact that we are in this environment of coercion short of conflict. And that is keenly felt inside the intelligence community, whether it is on the defence or the offence. The other comment I would make is that it\u2019s often a term that the military is using, and I think our military and the other militaries around the world are thinking very, very carefully around coercion short of conflict and the role of the military.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The legal framework for Australia\u2019s spies is the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legislation.gov.au\/Details\/C2020C00300\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>Intelligence Services Act 2001<\/em><\/a>, which gives ASIS these functions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">obtain and communicate intelligence about the capabilities, intentions or activities of people or organisations outside Australia<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">assist the ADF in support of military operations and cooperate with the ADF on intelligence\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">conduct counterintelligence activities\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">liaise with intelligence or security services of other countries<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">undertake such other activities as the foreign minister directs relating to the capabilities, intentions or activities of people or organisations outside Australia.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>ASIS is accountable to the foreign minister, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aph.gov.au\/parliamentary_business\/committees\/joint\/intelligence_and_security\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.igis.gov.au\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security<\/a>. Symon says the inspector-general has the powers of a standing royal commission with constant access to ASIS computer systems.<\/p>\n<p>Symon says ASIS officers must understand the law and the purpose of the service, and provide a detailed written record of everything they do:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>If you looked at our internal correspondence, literally all of our activities are written up in great detail\u2014and when I say great detail, I am not only talking about the nature of the meeting with an agent and the conversation or intelligence or information which is passed, but considerable detail about body language, personal life, all of that is recorded. Because we always want to validate, to check, that all the information we are getting is accurate. That the agents themselves are at a point in their life where they are not getting distracted or not being coerced\u2014there is a lot of things that we are checking on as we build a relationship with our agents. Everything is very well written down inside the service.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u2018Spies cannot be usefully employed without a certain intuitive sagacity. They cannot be properly managed without benevolence and straightforwardness. Without subtle ingenuity of mind, one cannot make certain of the truth of their reports. Be &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":59970,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1032,624,170],"class_list":["post-60139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-asis","tag-espionage","tag-intelligence"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Australian Secret Intelligence Service: purposes and principles | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-australian-secret-intelligence-service-purposes-and-principles\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Australian Secret Intelligence Service: purposes and principles | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u2018Spies cannot be usefully employed without a certain intuitive sagacity. They cannot be properly managed without benevolence and straightforwardness. Without subtle ingenuity of mind, one cannot make certain of the truth of their reports. Be ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-australian-secret-intelligence-service-purposes-and-principles\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ASPI.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-11-01T02:00:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-11-01T00:55:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/symonasis2310-scaled-e1603430691104.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"688\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Graeme Dobell\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ASPI_org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ASPI_org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Graeme Dobell\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/\",\"name\":\"The Strategist\",\"description\":\"ASPI&#039;s analysis and commentary site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-australian-secret-intelligence-service-purposes-and-principles\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/symonasis2310-scaled-e1603430691104.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/symonasis2310-scaled-e1603430691104.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":688},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-australian-secret-intelligence-service-purposes-and-principles\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-australian-secret-intelligence-service-purposes-and-principles\/\",\"name\":\"The Australian Secret Intelligence Service: purposes and principles | The Strategist\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-australian-secret-intelligence-service-purposes-and-principles\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2020-11-01T02:00:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-11-01T00:55:51+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/ed3342cd61abc65c1532f3cc46bdf96f\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-australian-secret-intelligence-service-purposes-and-principles\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-australian-secret-intelligence-service-purposes-and-principles\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-australian-secret-intelligence-service-purposes-and-principles\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Australian Secret Intelligence Service: purposes and principles\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/ed3342cd61abc65c1532f3cc46bdf96f\",\"name\":\"Graeme Dobell\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dff56734d4df784248f63058b7b6900a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dff56734d4df784248f63058b7b6900a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Graeme Dobell\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/author\/graeme-dobell\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Australian Secret Intelligence Service: purposes and principles | The Strategist","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-australian-secret-intelligence-service-purposes-and-principles\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Australian Secret Intelligence Service: purposes and principles | The Strategist","og_description":"\u2018Spies cannot be usefully employed without a certain intuitive sagacity. They cannot be properly managed without benevolence and straightforwardness. Without subtle ingenuity of mind, one cannot make certain of the truth of their reports. Be ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-australian-secret-intelligence-service-purposes-and-principles\/","og_site_name":"The Strategist","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ASPI.org","article_published_time":"2020-11-01T02:00:47+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-11-01T00:55:51+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":688,"url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/symonasis2310-scaled-e1603430691104.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Graeme Dobell","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@ASPI_org","twitter_site":"@ASPI_org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Graeme Dobell","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/","name":"The Strategist","description":"ASPI&#039;s analysis and commentary site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-AU"},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-AU","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-australian-secret-intelligence-service-purposes-and-principles\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/symonasis2310-scaled-e1603430691104.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/symonasis2310-scaled-e1603430691104.jpg","width":1000,"height":688},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-australian-secret-intelligence-service-purposes-and-principles\/","url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-australian-secret-intelligence-service-purposes-and-principles\/","name":"The Australian Secret Intelligence Service: purposes and principles | The Strategist","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-australian-secret-intelligence-service-purposes-and-principles\/#primaryimage"},"datePublished":"2020-11-01T02:00:47+00:00","dateModified":"2020-11-01T00:55:51+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/ed3342cd61abc65c1532f3cc46bdf96f"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-australian-secret-intelligence-service-purposes-and-principles\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-AU","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-australian-secret-intelligence-service-purposes-and-principles\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-australian-secret-intelligence-service-purposes-and-principles\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Australian Secret Intelligence Service: purposes and principles"}]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/ed3342cd61abc65c1532f3cc46bdf96f","name":"Graeme Dobell","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-AU","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dff56734d4df784248f63058b7b6900a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dff56734d4df784248f63058b7b6900a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Graeme Dobell"},"url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/author\/graeme-dobell\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60139"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/79"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60139"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60149,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60139\/revisions\/60149"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}