British Special Services in Interdepartmental Contradictions in the Beginning of the 20th Century

Abstract

   In modern conditions, the problem of the objectivity of decisions taken by politicians is acute, due to the fact that responsible persons often lack reliable information. Since the beginning of the 20th century, the receipt and interpretation of this information has been within the competence of intelligence agencies, therefore, the success of military-political operations often depends on the effectiveness of their work and the quality of their interaction with other departments. The hypothesis of the study is that, under certain conditions, the ability of special services to influence the politicaldecision-making process is often associated not only with the effectiveness of analytical work, but more with the ability to overcome the resistance of other government agencies seeking to monopolize information channels in the government. The example of the secret services of the British Empire in this respect is valuable as far as the victory in the Great War made the apparatus of this state an object of interest of some other countries, which wanted to bring the level of efficiency and working principles of their security structures in line with the British. Accordingly, not only the advantages of the British secret services, but also their shortcomings, manifested, among other things, in the bias of assessments and distortion of the content of intelligence reports, became widespread in the world.