INSIDE Siena's Palazzo Pubblico a three-part fresco by Ambrogio Lorenzetti, a 14th-century artist, reminds the city's rulers of the effects of both good and bad government. Above the happy scene of well-governed people working harmoniously in neat fields or engaged in wealth-creating commerce hovers the winged figure of Securitas. The message is clear: the provision of security and the rule of law is the first duty of governments and the precondition for ordinary people to live productive and fulfilled lives.
David Omand, one of Britain's most experienced “securocrats”, takes Lorenzetti's magisterial work as his starting point in examining what national security means nearly 700 years later. In particular, he sets out to explain the often misrepresented role that secret intelligence plays in helping governments to deliver the security society depends upon.
This is a timely book for several reasons. The first is that although the West is safe in the sense that the existential threat of invasion by a malevolent foreign power or a first strike by a nuclear-armed aggressor is now vanishingly small, the rise of jihadist terrorism has left people feeling vulnerable. Second, despite the disruption of hundreds of plots inspired by al-Qaeda, confidence in the agents of the state to protect people from this new threat is low. The mistakes made in the run-up to the Iraq war engendered cynicism about both the competence of intelligence services and the relationship between them and their ministerial “customers”. Third, because the threat does not come solely from abroad, the gathering of intelligence and the actions that may follow from it pose real risks to the liberties that are at the cornerstone of society.
Sir David, a former director of GCHQ (see article) who was Tony Blair's intelligence and security co-ordinator from 2002 until his retirement in 2005, shirks none of these issues. He has produced an invaluable handbook for politicians, intelligence professionals, journalists and anyone else who wants to know what should and should not be done in the name of securing the state in an age of surprise, turbulence and implacably hostile terrorist networks that are more than capable of using the latest technology.
Security, he believes, starts with the recognition that it is a psychological as much as an objective state. Governments must be able to show that they are doing everything that is reasonable to protect citizens from threats, but they must be candid in admitting that not all risks can be eliminated without doing more harm than good and eroding the very values they are seeking to defend.
That leads to several important conclusions. The first is the need for honest communication—the realisation that it is counter-productive to exaggerate the scale of the threat. Sir David strongly dislikes all the “war on terror” talk that has encouraged both a sense of permanent insecurity and a consequent willingness to sanction disproportionate behaviour, such as torture and the suspension of civil liberties.
But governments have a duty to acquire as much information as they can consistent with that proportionality. Sir David argues that surveillance must always be carried out within a regulatory framework to safeguard unrestrained snooping, but he insists that the more you know, the more likely you are to make good decisions. To that end, pre-emptive intelligence, often acquired by unconventional means, is the feedstock of sensible anticipatory action. It is all a question of balance.
The near-certainty that something horrible will from time to time happen places a premium on what Sir David calls “national resilience”. In other words, when the suicide-bomber does get through we must be able to bounce back and resume normal life as quickly and as smoothly as possible. But fortitude, he argues, does not just happen. It depends on notions of civil harmony and responsibility, which governments have an important role in supporting. Although this book is written in slightly mannered mandarin English, Sir David's practical knowledge, common sense and decency shine through.