Masteroppgave i Sikkerhetsledelse og kulturforståelse

Abstract

This master thesis has information processing in the form of intelligence as a theme, and is based on a qualitative survey conducted during the spring of 2017. It is argued that the national information processing contributing in protecting the Norwegian society from acts of terrorism is to be regarded as an intelligence process, and intelligence is thus used as a synonym to information processing. The survey is based on interviews of key informants selected on account of their expertise and experience from the intelligence process of the national counter-terrorism effort. They have backgrounds both as leaders with the most important national actors of this field, and as recognized academics on the subject. Theoretically the thesis' framework is based on intelligence theory as reflected in both the documents and directives that govern Norwegian governmental activities of such, as well as with recognized international researchers. The discussion is rooted in theories dealing with process-management and -leadership – belonging to the field of organizational theory. The survey may indicate a low degree of process orientation within the national intelligence process contributing in protecting the Norwegian society from acts of terrorism. This leads to a lack of an overall goal and strategy of the process, and as a consequence the process does not have a defined owner or description. All in all, this causes unclarity regarding the process' actors: who are these and what roles and responsibilities do they have? The weak integration of the actors eventually causes the process to violate two of the key principles of intelligence: "timeliness" and "accessibility and sharing" – and this in turn reduces the ability to uncover and prevent terrorist acts. The national intelligence process contributing in protecting the Norwegian society from acts of terrorism may be improved through a greater degree of process orientation rather than organizational changes. This requires changing current constitutional preconditions, and thus political involvement. The process should more fully include and integrate all relevant actors, the process' management unit should be close to political management level and the process owner should be given real authority regarding resources and prioritization. At the same time it is important to keep in mind that all the actors of the process, to various degrees, have other tasks and use the same resources in their counter-terrorism efforts as they do solving these other tasks.