Unwinding the Intelligence Cycle in Denmark

Abstract The intelligence cycle has been the standard model for intelligence processes and national intelligence doctrines in the United States and Europe. However, at the same time, it is seen as theoretical flotsam from the Cold War. This study explores the cycle’s application in the Danish Defence Intelligence Services Middle East analytical department. It is a single-site explorative case study of the Middle Eastern analytic department using multiple sources in the form of formal descriptions, organograms, and qualitative interviews with intelligence and government officials to explore and compare the manifest and assumed organization. The study concludes that the cycle is merely a metaphor for a New Public Management framework in use in the Danish Defence Intelligence Service and across the Danish central administration. This framework is used for setting the annual intelligence requirements. This study is an argument for a closer look at the impact of New Public Management on European intelligence organizations.