Davies - MI6 and the Machinery of Spying

CASS SERIES: STUDIES IN INTELLIGENCE
(Series Editors: Christopher Andrew and Richard J. Aldrich
ISSN: 13689916)

MI6 AND THE MACHINERY OF SPYING

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MI6

and the

MACHINERY OF SPYING

PHILIP H.J. DAVIES
Brunel University

Foreword by
Michael Herman

First published in 2004 in Great Britain by
FRANK CASS PUBLISHERS
2 Park Square, Milton park,
Abngdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge
270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016

Transferred to Digital Printing 2005

Copyright 2004 Philip H.J. Davies

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Davies, Philip H. J.
MI6 and the machinery of spying. (Cass series. Studies in intelligence)
1. Great Britain. MI6 Management History 2. Intelligence service
Great Britain History
I. Title
327.1241

ISBN 0-7146-5457-4 (cloth)
ISBN 0-7146-8363-9 (paper)
ISSN 1368-9916

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Davies, Philip H. J.
MI6 and the machinery of spying / Philip H. J. Davies.
p. cm. (Cass seriesStudies in intelligence, ISSN 1368-9916)
Based on author's thesis (Ph.D.)U. Toronto.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7146-5457-4 (cloth) ISBN 0-7146-8363-9 (pbk.)
1. Great Britain. MI6. I. Title. II. Series.

UB251.G7D38 2003
327.1241dc21 2003055262

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher of this book.

Typeset in 10.5/12pt Sabon by FiSH Books, London

This work is dedicated in the first instance to my mother, and in loving memory of my father.

To John Wilfred Davies, who, as he was about to emigrate to Canada, was approached by two Men from the Ministry types, who asked if he might be willing to pass back to them any information he might think to be interesting once over there. He promptly pointed out the confidentiality clause in his contract with his future employers in Canada, and politely but firmly sent them on their way.

To Martha Alice Davies, who, as Staff Secretary in the engineering firm where they both worked, thoughtfully if recklessly fixed her vocally left-wing fianc's security clearance form.

They stacked the family bookshelves with Masterman and Winterbotham, Stevenson, Fleming and Albeury, and more besides, planting a seed which I hope will bear more fruit yet to come.

It is also dedicated to the memory of the late Ian MacIntosh, creator of the Yorkshire Television series The Sandbaggers, whose fiction about SIS went so far to inspire a search for the facts.

The last 25 years have seen intelligence studies develop as a serious academic subject, but it is still finding its way. It has good historical and analytic literature, but there are many gaps, particularly over the secret intelligence agencies. There is little understanding of what makes them tick and how we should appraise them. So it is timely that Philip Davies now offers us a new lens upon them when intelligence reform is in the air and understanding of them is much needed.

I commend his book at two levels. At one, he uses publicly available material and confidential interviews to provide the most comprehensive account yet available of the Security Intelligence Service's internal organization: a research achievement in itself. And he does this without hazarding the Service's sources and methods, or sensitive details of its operational successes and failures.

At the second level he brings his social science training to interpret what he has found. It is part of the stock-in-trade of organization and management studies that an organization's structure casts light upon its assumptions about objectives, priorities, challenges and responses. Properly looked at, wiring diagrams reflect organizational culture. But intelligence has not been examined in this way in the past, and Philip Davies now shows us that even Britain's most secretive agency can get the treatment and with profit. His conclusions will come as a surprise to the reader who comes with preconceptions about proper intelligence organization and how the SIS has measured up to it historically.

This is important not only in its own right, but also for demonstrating how effectively the study of intelligence can be linked with serious work on organization and management elsewhere. Intelligence studies, like its subject, risks becoming too inward-looking. Here we have a significant move towards developing closer links with other academic disciples, for benefit all round.