SAUDI ARABIA INTELLIGENCE SERVICE.

SAUDI ARABIA INTELLIGENCE SERVICE.

Introduction.

Security is a paramount feature of any economy all over the world. In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, security threats have been on the hike as a result of its immediate neighbours. For instance, the constant nuclear threats in Iran encompassed with the dawning reality of border attacks by terrorists. On the other side of the border is the unstable neighbour, Iraq. Apart from dealing with security threats, the kingdom also faces demographic and economic threats which are profoundly affected by security. However, with the dawn of increasing threats, the nation must embark on a course to protect its economic, political and social well-being. All these factors solely rely on national intelligence, which ought to be enhanced. In this paper, we shall asses the weakness, strengths, geography and economic threats of Saudi Arabia and make recommendations on what policies should be adjusted in the intelligence service.

Threats making Saudi Arabia weak

The kingdom has an intelligence service known as the General Intelligence Presidency (GIP) whose duties are well outlined. The primary responsibility of the intelligence service is to collect information and report directly to the head of state. After the 9/11 event in the U.S, the agency noted that information was somehow not being distributed in a standard way due to poor coordination. Additionally, some services offered by the GIP are comprised of personal tensions and rivalries, thus making them quite unreliable (Cordesman, 2019). Furthermore, the research departments of the GIP are quite weak as the information acquired profoundly relies on personal briefings and contacts. Thus the information may be biased based on which side the contact source supports.

Saudi Arabia is a country which is located within areas which have vast oil deposits. The economy of the kingdom relies on oil as the primary source of revenue for growth. Since the ascension of Salman, oil deposits have been moving towards recession where statistically 1/3 of the foreign reserves have been spent. In addition to the depletion of the oil reserves, the country has worked towards lowering oil prices. The result of reduced oil prices is that the economy has been affected immensely. The unstable economy could result in a budget reduction to the GIP.

The kingdom has also been a significant threat to itself by engaging in avoidable conflicts with neighbours such as Yemen and Qatar. For instance, the war with Yemen has been long and quite costly, which burdens the kingdom’s economy. The failure of foreign policies has resulted in attacks on the country by rebels. The rebels have been getting aid from Hezbollah and Yemen, thus enabling them to build missiles to attack Riyadh. Also, the country has blocked the Qatar airways from the Saudi Arabian airspace accusing the neighbour of supporting terror attacks on its soil due to its proximity to Iran. The blockade is bound to continue as Qatar is still declining to the demands issued by the countries blocking it. Additionally, since Qatar even claims that there is no concrete evidence on the allegations. The misinformation regarding the implication could be owed to the GIP, which has poor information gathering practices.

Significant strengths of Saudi Arabia intelligence service

The Saudi Arabia kingdom invests highly on the defence as so far it is ranked to have the third-highest budget in the world. The kingdom’s leading intelligence service is the General Intelligence Agency (GIP). The functions of the GIP include foreign liaison functions, anti-terrorism duties, international security functions, coordination of global covert networks in the kingdom and analytical assessments. The intelligence service has an approximated budget of about $500 million annually, thus ranking the highest in terms of funding in the Middle East. The implication is that the country can support the GIP economically.

The kingdom GIP also coordinates with the government of the United States, and for more than seventy decades it has formed quite a good relationship. For instance, in the past, during the leadership of Prince Turki Al Faisal, the General intelligence presidency was able to deal with many threats posed to the kingdom both internally and externally. The threat curbing was achieved through the cooperation with the U.S intelligence (Doblinger, Surana & Anadon, 2019).

Recommendation for policies in the GIP

The intelligence service is heavily relied on to give information which is used for making decisions by the prime minister (King). The authenticity of the information should, therefore, be gauged on a very high level as the decisions made affect a vast number of people in the kingdom. The data from the personal contacts should be concrete with evidence and not rely much on the own ideologies of the informant. Furthermore, information sharing should be done systematically and a structured analysis conducted (Obaid, 2014). Besides, the use of surveillance with digitalized records could prove quite useful rather than interpersonal and human intelligence.

The coordination of the GIP with intelligence service from other nations and security groups such as GSS should also be enhanced. The intelligence services should aim at promoting peace rather than creating chaos such as the blockades established over Qatar. Presence of harmony and interaction of nations will promote economic well-being and save the funds used in maintaining armies in wars. Besides, the government should not rely solely on oil as the only source of revenue as this may become catastrophic in the long run.

Conclusion.

In the essay, we have assessed the significant weaknesses of the Saudi Arabia Kingdom in the intelligence service. We have seen that with the continuation of performing duties like in the previous years of the GIP could result in catastrophic results. Therefore, we have made recommendations on what should be amended in the policies of the GIP. The critical point lies mostly on making the information in the intelligence service legitimate.