Foreign Intelligence Services: Autonomous or Attuned?

In Week #12 Jason presented our class with his 2 x 2 that was similar to Professor Jackson's 2 x 2 for Module #6 to use as breakout group topic of discussion. I believe that Jason had "diplomacy" across the two top blocks meaning it spanned across the intersections of "impermeable" and "autonomy" as well as "impermeable" and "attunement." Jason also had "hot-lines / espionage" in the top left quadrant of the intersection of "impermeable" and "autonomy."

I mentioned in class that I viewed both diplomacy and espionage falling under the broader umbrella of statecraft and thus both spanning across "autonomy" and "attunement." The link below of David Ignatius' July 22 Washington Post article, "The U.S. and Germany are rebuilding a spy partnership," confirmed my initial thoughts:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/david-ignatius-the-us-and-germany-are-rebuilding-a-spy-partnership/2014/07/22/b0bdc7e0-11e2-11e4-8936-26932bcfd6ed_story.html

To summarize, the relationship between Germany and the United States has been strained recently because of a couple of intelligence related issues. First, Edward Snowden released material about the National Security Agency's activities in Germany to include tapping Chancellor Angela Merkel's cellphone. Second, Germany recently expelled the CIA's station chief in Berlin for paying a "walk-in" German agent. While those activities would appear to be confined to the top right quadrant, those incidents do not tell the whole story.

Ignatius details how White House chief of staff Dennis McDonough flew to Germany within the last week to meet with his German counterpart, Peter Altmaier. Ignatius reports that a senior German official shared that his government was very satisfied with the meeting. While not a formal "no spy" pledge, it was sufficient to reassure Germans that their rights would be respected.

The article goes on to reveal that the German intelligence service, the Bundesnachrichtendiest, or BND, has been cooperating with the NSA on signals intelligence activities since 1962. The senior German official affirmed that the intelligence partnership has been "very extensive" and said "we are very happy with this cooperation." He didn't dispute U.S. estimates that the NSA had helped disrupt more than 50 terrorist plots, including more than 20 in Europe.

Finally, to tie it into Module 6's topic of the "Public Sphere," the German official was quoted: "The problem we face in Germany is not about intelligence collection anymore, but about public sentiment. The public is extremely upset, and the German government has taken this into account." Pressed about why the German government hadn't been more open about the extent of past cooperation, the official said "it's a very bad moment to say it's "all right," after the Snowden revelations.