Intelligence Tasking and Coordination

This chapter explains the complexities involved in understanding how intelligence is tasked or coordinated by decision-makers in the bio-threat and risk context. It argues that compared to other threat and risk categories (conventional terrorism, cyber and high volume crime), the political leadership of most ‘Five Eyes’ countries do not see bio-threats and risks as high intelligence priorities. This impacts on the intelligence communities in a number of ways that are not helpful to gaining greater understanding of these issues. Nonetheless, the chapter argues that the intelligence communities themselves can play a more proactive role to improve tasking and coordination of bio-threat and risk intelligence.