5. Intelligence Dilemmas: Understanding the Complexity of the P5 Relationship

Threats to stability and peace are likely to continue into the foreseeable future. Likewise, since globalization has expanded in recent years, it has made it difficult in knowing whether any particular country could be viewed as a friend or foe; this is a significant challenge to those working in the field of intelligence and to help determine how intelligence relations can vary depending on the situation. Particularly, this is the case when turning to relations among the permanent five (P5) members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). This research looks to enhance the scholarship of integration (Boyer 1990). It applies the Federal Qualitative Secondary Data Case Study Triangulation Model and a variant of the York Intelligence Red Team Model (YIRTM) to help perform the analysis. Specifically, this study looks at issues from the US perspective to see the way UNSC permanent members advance their own interests. Accordingly, the chapter shows when nations will likely foster relations to share intelligence with one or more of these actors and when it is in the best interest of a country not to do so.