Five Eyes

The Five Eyes (FVEY) is an Anglosphere intelligence alliance made up of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

These countries work together under the multilateral UKUSA Agreement, which allows them to cooperate closely in signals intelligence (SIGINT).

Informally, the term “Five Eyes” is also used to describe the intelligence agencies of these five countries. The name comes from the classified marking “AUS/CAN/NZ/UK/US Eyes Only” (AUSCANNZUKUS), which meant information could only be shared within this group.

The origins of Five Eyes go back to World War II, when British and American code-breakers held secret meetings before the United States officially entered the war.

After the war, this cooperation became official through the UKUSA Agreement in 1946. During the Cold War, the alliance expanded its intelligence-sharing system through the ECHELON surveillance network in the 1960s.

This system was first used to monitor communications from the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc, but it later expanded to global communications monitoring.

After the start of the "war on terror", the alliance greatly increased its monitoring of the Internet and digital communications. Over time, Five Eyes has become a large global surveillance system focused on threats such as terrorism, cyberattacks, and modern regional conflicts.

Because many of its activities are secret, the alliance has often been criticised for its effects on privacy and civil liberties. In the late 1990s, the public learned about ECHELON, which led to debates in the European Parliament and other legislatures. Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden described Five Eyes as a powerful intelligence organisation that operates beyond normal national laws.

Leaks in the 2010s showed that Five Eyes countries sometimes collected information on each other’s citizens and shared it within the alliance, though the member states say this was done legally.British spy agency taps cables, shares with U.S. NSA – Guardian , Reuters, 21 June 2013. Retrieved 18 January 2014.

Five Eyes is widely considered one of the most powerful intelligence alliances in the world.

The intelligence shared goes beyond SIGINT and also includes military intelligence (MILINT), human intelligence (HUMINT), and geospatial intelligence (GEOINT). Five Eyes continues to play a major role in the national security strategies of all its member countries.

 References 

 Further reading 


 Williams, Brad. "Why the Five Eyes? Power and Identity in the Formation of a Multilateral Intelligence Grouping." Journal of Cold War Studies 25, no. 1 (2023): 101-137.

 Other websites 
 UKUSA Agreement at The National Archives
 UKUSA Agreement at the National Security Agency
 From Insularity to Exteriority: How the Anglosphere is Shaping Global Governance – Centre for International Policy Studies

Category:Espionage
Category:National security