The Five Eyes (FVEY) is an Anglosphere intelligence alliance made up of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.[1]
These countries work together under the multilateral UKUSA Agreement, which allows them to cooperate closely in signals intelligence (SIGINT).[2][3][4]
Informally, the term “Five Eyes” is also used to describe the intelligence agencies of these five countries. The name comes from the classified marking “AUS/CAN/NZ/UK/US Eyes Only” (AUSCANNZUKUS), which meant information could only be shared within this group.[5]
The origins of Five Eyes go back to World War II, when British and American code-breakers held secret meetings before the United States officially entered the war.[6]
After the war, this cooperation became official through the UKUSA Agreement in 1946. During the Cold War, the alliance expanded its intelligence-sharing system through the ECHELON surveillance network in the 1960s.[7]
This system was first used to monitor communications from the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc, but it later expanded to global communications monitoring.[8][9]
After the start of the "war on terror", the alliance greatly increased its monitoring of the Internet and digital communications. Over time, Five Eyes has become a large global surveillance system focused on threats such as terrorism, cyberattacks, and modern regional conflicts.
Because many of its activities are secret, the alliance has often been criticised for its effects on privacy and civil liberties. In the late 1990s, the public learned about ECHELON, which led to debates in the European Parliament and other legislatures. Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden described Five Eyes as a powerful intelligence organisation that operates beyond normal national laws.[10]
Leaks in the 2010s showed that Five Eyes countries sometimes collected information on each other’s citizens and shared it within the alliance, though the member states say this was done legally.[11][12]
Five Eyes is widely considered one of the most powerful intelligence alliances in the world.[13]
The intelligence shared goes beyond SIGINT and also includes military intelligence (MILINT), human intelligence (HUMINT), and geospatial intelligence (GEOINT). Five Eyes continues to play a major role in the national security strategies of all its member countries.
References
- ↑ "Five Eyes Intelligence Oversight and Review Council (FIORC)". www.dni.gov. Archived from the original on 2 August 2020. Retrieved 5 June 2020.
- ↑ Cox, James (December 2012). "Canada and the Five Eyes Intelligence Community" (PDF). Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 September 2015. Retrieved 24 July 2016.
- ↑ "Five Eyes". United States Army Combined Arms Center. Archived from the original on 2 February 2014. Retrieved 18 January 2014.
- ↑ "PKI Interoperability with FVEY Partner Nations on the NIPRNet". United States Department of the Navy. Archived from the original on 1 February 2014. Retrieved 18 January 2014.
- ↑ Cox, James (December 2012). "Canada and the Five Eyes Intelligence Community" (PDF). Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 December 2013.
- ↑ Vucetic, Srdjan (April 2020). "CANZUK: Fantasy or potential reality?: CANZUK anyone?". Diplomat & International Canada (Spring 2020). Archived from the original on 21 April 2024. Retrieved 21 April 2024.
- ↑ "Five Eyes and the Perils of an Asymmetric Alliance – AIIA". Australian Institute of International Affairs. Archived from the original on 10 April 2021. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
- ↑ Asser, Martin (6 July 2000). "Echelon: Big brother without a cause?". BBC News. Archived from the original on 25 January 2014. Retrieved 28 January 2014.
- ↑ "Q&A: What you need to know about Echelon". BBC News. 29 May 2001. Archived from the original on 18 December 2013. Retrieved 28 January 2014.
- ↑ "Snowden-Interview: Transcript". Norddeutscher Rundfunk. 26 January 2014. Archived from the original on 28 January 2014. Retrieved 28 January 2014.
- ↑ Ball, James (20 November 2013). "US and UK struck secret deal to allow NSA to 'unmask' Britons' personal data". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 20 January 2014. Retrieved 18 January 2014.
- ↑ British spy agency taps cables, shares with U.S. NSA – Guardian Archived 2014-01-25 at the Wayback Machine, Reuters, 21 June 2013. Retrieved 18 January 2014.
- ↑ Perry, Nick; Dodds, Paisley (17 July 2013). "5-nation spy alliance too vital for leaks to harm". AP News. Associated Press. Archived from the original on 21 April 2024. Retrieved 21 April 2024.
Further reading
- Kerbaj, Richard (2022). The secret history of the Five Eyes : the untold story of the international spy network. London: Blink. ISBN 978-1-78946-503-7. OCLC 1338655960.
- Smith, Michael (2022). The Real Special Relationship : The True Story of How The British and US Secret Services Work Together. London: Arcade. ISBN 978-1-4711-8679-0.
- Williams, Brad. "Why the Five Eyes? Power and Identity in the Formation of a Multilateral Intelligence Grouping." Journal of Cold War Studies 25, no. 1 (2023): 101-137.