Drugs and Dirty Wars: intelligence cooperation in the global South

Abstract

Intelligence is a subject dominated by an Anglospheric lexicon. Little is known of intelligence in the global South, still less of intelligence cooperation. Since 9/11 Western democracies have sought to intensify their intelligence alliances across the world in the Middle East, Latin America, Africa and Asia as part of a US-led ‘war on terror’. However, the conceptualisation of intelligence and the nature of secret service cooperation—often referred to as ‘liaison’—remains dominated by concepts derived from Western technocratic Cold War surveillance. This article calls for a re-examination of intelligence cooperation based on activity ‘beyond the Anglosphere’. It attempts to redefine what intelligence is in the global South and explores the texture of South–South cooperation using Latin American examples. It offers an alternative model of intelligence liaison focused on opportunistic cooperation in the context of drugs and dirty wars.