| Summary/Abstract |
Comparing intelligence services meets three recurrent challenges. Getting to know what is unique about specific organizations in different countries is always a powerful research driver. The general preference, then, is for insightful descriptive case studies. Second, the intricacy of the international security context and its dual level dynamics tend to drive off comparative studies. Third, the legal and practical impediments for researching organizations with secrecy and deception as constitutive features make evidence-based comparative assessments difficult. Indeed, intelligence might well be an odd subject for comparatists. Nonetheless, intelligence systems in different countries do undertake a similar set of missions and functions. They vary in terms of effectiveness and legitimacy according to the institutional history, political culture, and relative power and wealth of each country.
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