The Five Eyes brings the UK, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand into the world’s most complete and comprehensive intelligence alliance.

The Five Eyes (FVEY) is widely regarded as the world’s most significant intelligence alliance. The origins of it can be traced back to the context of the Second World War and by its necessity of sharing vital information mainly between Britain and the United States so both countries could enhance their close war effort.

The Five Eyes was formally founded in the aftermath of the Second World War, through the multilateral agreement for co-operation in signals intelligence (SIGINT), known as the UKUSA Agreement, on 5 March 1946.

Initially, compromising only the UK and the United States, it expanded to also include Canada in 1948 and Australia and New Zealand in 1956, all of these last three English-speaking countries, members of the Commonwealth of Nations and with similar political systems when compared to Britain. Thereby, the ‘Five Eyes’ term was created from the lengthy ‘AUS/CAN/NZ/UK/ Eyes Only’ classification level that included the ‘eyes’ that could have access to high profile papers and information.

For more than 70 years, the once-secret post-war alliance of the five English-speaking nations has been an infrastructure of surveillance with a global reach and ageing is not a problem for the FVEY, which remains one of the most complex and far-reaching intelligence and espionage alliances in our history.

Despite the fact that the alliance is known throughout the world and its existence is subject of endless debates, the real knowledge of how the Five Eyes works is still clouded by the security measures that involves almost everything related to the Five Eyes.

The secretiveness of the alliance is so severe that the treaty that created it was not in the knowledge of Gough Whitlam, then Prime Minister of Australia, as late as 1973 and it did not come to the public attention until 2005. Only in June 2010, the full text of the UKUSA Agreement was released by the British and American governments and for the first time officially recognised.

It’s worth mentioning the importance of the UKUSA Agreement and the subsequent Five Eyes for the Special Relationship. It helped to forge the basis for a stronger co-operation between the UK and the United States in the Cold War period fostering mutual trust and deepening the links between the two countries. In other words, the Agreement consolidated the Special Relationship between Britain and the United States.

The co-operation was crucial for both countries during the Cold War, for Britain, an example was the Five Eyes role in providing complementary intelligence for tracking Soviet submarines with ballistic missiles in the North Atlantic and the North Sea, and for the United States, it relied on long-established British listening posts in territories that were part of Britain’s empire for signals of intelligence, especially in the Middle East.

Few documents are accessible to the public, but with the ones that have been officially realised it is possible to know the primary extent of the Agreement.

According to the original declassified treaty of 1946, ‘the parties agree to the exchange of the products of the following operations relating to foreign communications: collection of traffic, acquisition of communication documents and equipment, traffic analysis, cryptanalysis, decryption and translation, acquisition of information regarding communication organisations, practices, procedures, and equipment’. This shows the initial scope of the treaty and its ambitions.

Furthermore, it is known that each member of the alliance is responsible for intelligence gathering and analysis over specific regions of the world. Britain monitors Europe, Western Russia, Middle East and Hong Kong. Meanwhile, the United States also oversees the Middle East plus China, Russia, Africa and the Caribbean. Australia is responsible for South and East Asia and New Zealand for the South Pacific and Southeast Asia. Canada monitors the interior of Russia and China and parts of Latin America. In spite of this division, they work mainly together, and the ‘final product’ generally is a result of more than one of its members; helping each other is an essential part of this agreement.

Nevertheless, the regional division does not imply that the parties are bounded to direct its efforts only to those regions, this means that while Britain is ‘responsible’ for some areas, it has not the obligation to just monitor those parts of the world.

The current role of the Five Eyes has many ramifications, such as the ‘maritime domain’ where the alliance monitors shipping traffic passing through strategic maritime areas and the ‘aerospace domain’ which covers ballistic missile tests, foreign satellite deployments and the military activities of relevant air forces.

Terrorist organisations and weapons business deals made by ‘problematic regimes’ are also within the scope of the Five Eyes; these two, in particular, are growing source of worries for all the five members and the intelligence co-operation between them is essential to keep their governments updated with the most recent information. This aids the process of policy-making, for the data collected and analysed by the alliance may turn out to be vital for more than a time of crises but also for the daily basis of government; notably, these daily efforts consist in tracking and identifying possible sources of terrorism and other non-conventional threats.

Such complex agreement would never exist if not by the convergent aspects of all the five members. They share common principles, such the liberal democratic values, similar or complementary national interests and cultures. Beyond that, since the Second World War Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United States share same threats to their national security be them conventional or not.

All these characteristics unify their efforts and foster mutual trust, indispensable to the Five Eyes. Within the context of mutual trust, the five partners seem not to target each other; nevertheless, there are no means of ensuring that spying on each other does not happen.

In addition, the Five Eyes works with various ‘Third Party’ countries, the co-operation with Denmark, France, Norway and the Netherlands receives the name of ‘Nine Eyes’, and there is the ‘Fourteen Eyes’ which consists of the previously mentioned Nine Eyes plus Belgium, Germany, Italy, Spain and Sweden. However, the official name of the Fourteen Eyes is SIGINT Seniors Europe (SSEUR), and its primary objective is to coordinate the exchange of military signals amongst its members.

It is also worth to mention that many countries mentioned above already have other intelligence co-operation links, especially through NATO Special Committee which gathers the heads of the security services of its parties.

So, after more than 70 years, the Five Eyes is widely regarded as the ‘gold standard’ of intelligence alliances. Its scope grows accordingly with the new technologies and the following evolving security concerns arising from those new technologies, thereby, the Eyes have in mind that the digital world cannot be underestimated; the opponents of the UK and the United States recognise that as well, as the number of cyber attacks grows unceasingly.

Therefore, the Five Eyes is an enormous asset to keep the citizens of the ‘English-Speaking World’ safer and is the result of decades of relationship cemented on trust and confidence amongst its members.

By uniting services from Britain, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand it is possible to affirm that its potential is almost limitless and meets no parallel.

Vitor is a doctoral student of International Relations at the Sao Paulo State University. He also explores British imperial and military history, and its legacies to the modern world.
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Levi Goldsteinberg
Levi Goldsteinberg
6 years ago

>America
>Anglosphere

Yeah no they’re in the Afrosphere if anything

AV
6 years ago

Not often FVEY is mentioned….then 2 posts in a row.

Steve10
Steve10
6 years ago

Sun is over the yard arm I see

Geoffrey Roach
Geoffrey Roach
6 years ago

U K security review postponed. Now likely to be reporting in 2018

Patrick
Patrick
6 years ago
Reply to  Geoffrey Roach

Good news or bad news?

Daniele Mandelli
Daniele Mandelli
6 years ago
Reply to  Patrick

Good I would think. Second thoughts and more talks with treasury?

David
David
6 years ago

I think more like US pressure behind the scenes to NOT cut capabilities – especially the Marines.

Daniele Mandelli
Daniele Mandelli
6 years ago

The cornerstone of the Special Relationship giving the UK capabilities far above it’s weight.
Frequently ignored by the majority.
Knowledge is power.

Rob
Rob
6 years ago

Absolutely this! All our current intelligence gathering capabilities should be maintained and improved upon. I hope our new S of S is having a serious rethink about all proposed cuts and is pushing hard for more funds.

Daniele Mandelli
Daniele Mandelli
6 years ago
Reply to  Rob

If, when there are cuts, you won’t find the parts of the UK military involved in ISTAR or supporting SIS, BSS, or GCHQ amongst them. Though the DIS was reduced several years back, they did get a nice shiny “Pathfinder” Building to compensate.

The wider UK Intelligence community which is not a part of the MoD have all had budget increases.

The UK is a world leader in this field.

One for all the self haters and UK military bashers here.

JohnStevens
JohnStevens
6 years ago

Totally agree with you Daniele..

Otto rapauken
Otto rapauken
6 years ago

“Therefore, the Five Eyes is an enormous asset to keep the citizens of the ‘English-Speaking World’ safer …”

Safer than what?

Daniele Mandelli
Daniele Mandelli
6 years ago

Very good article. I have read extensively on this subject for many years.

Not widely known but the British Armed Forces contribute extensively to this, in a Tri Service manner, supporting GCHQ and the SIS at several locations worldwide and in the UK.

That Edward Snowden has a lot to answer for. And that self hating piece of trash The Guardian thinks he’s a hero and GCHQ are actually the enemy!

God help us.

Julian
Julian
6 years ago

Well said Daniele. I 100% agree with what you said earlier in the thread about the world-class nature of our intelligence services and what you say about Snowden here. That guy has blood on his hands for compromising some of GCHQ’s and NSA’s most useful tools.

Mike Saul
Mike Saul
6 years ago

Government planning for a general election?

Doesn’t want to upset core Tory vote with defence cuts?

Our intelligence gathering is one of our few remaining crown jewels.

Daniele Mandelli
Daniele Mandelli
6 years ago
Reply to  Mike Saul

In which case they are nuts and want to lose.

Elections or Referendums in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018?? The Public have had enough.

They should wait til 2022, make a success of Brexit, and hope JC and his communist cronies go away.

Mike Saul
Mike Saul
6 years ago

My guess if the government brexit bills are defeated they will have no choice but to call a general election

Chris
Chris
6 years ago
Reply to  Mike Saul

Mike – Its good that I can agree with you yet again. This ‘Withdrawal Bill’ is like a Confidence Vote. Basically this current Government has nothing else to do but get Brexit right and ensure a positive follow on after March 2019. Now if Labour DO succeed in scuppering this legislation (as they are now clearly trying to do for party political purposes) then there must be a resignation and a General Election sometime early in 2018. Having said that I am not sure the UK electorate will be best pleased and may be inclined to vent their annoyance on… Read more »

FrankLT
FrankLT
6 years ago

5 eyes/9 eyes/14 eyes… …the eyes have it.

But I’m a 4-eyes.

Geoffrey Roach
Geoffrey Roach
6 years ago

News about postponement of security review was from a Jane’s security brief. Fuller article this A M says their news was trawled from a London media source so I hope I haven’t got carried away. It seems real.

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Doogle
Doogle
5 years ago

would like to know how many civilians are actually being spied on. I think it is most civilians now getting pigeon holed into one category or another. People are not actually feeling safer.

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Robert B Sklaroff Md
Robert B Sklaroff Md
5 years ago

Recalls SEATO.

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5 years ago

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Joe Blo
Joe Blo
4 years ago

Too bad they decided they run the world and got involved by interfering in elections.
Specifically the US election of President Trump.

Keith W Rushing
4 years ago

Don’t give up on us mates, we have the sedition arrested.

ngatimozart
ngatimozart
3 years ago

An update. It has been suggested in a paper published by the CSIS, that the US invites Japan to become part of FVEY. If this was agreed to by all of the FVEY partners it would create SXEY. FVEY is branching out from being a pure intelligence group to a wider military and sometimes political / diplomatic group. Although it has slowly widened its scope in a limited context, its predominant primary role is intelligence. If Japan is added to the group I think that it would add to the strength of the group as a whole. Such a move… Read more »

ALISON PEEL
ALISON PEEL
2 years ago
Reply to  ngatimozart

What role do the 5 eyes play in the Covid pandemic?

Ngatimozart
Ngatimozart
2 years ago
Reply to  ALISON PEEL

None. It is an intelligence organisation. There are international health related organisations which the FVEY partners belong to. They are the appropriate fora for COVID-19 pandemic matters.

Gordon Patton
Gordon Patton
1 year ago

I dont think surveillance is cool.