The present article will explore how the terrorist threat is being materially and normatively shaped by national and global institutions of law and order with an emphasis on Spain. In this process security managers are gaining immense powers with limited national or supranational supervision thereby creating a symbiosis that enables them to perpetuate their relevance within national, transnational and international security affairs. This article concludes that this occurrence which is blurring the lines between internal and external aspects of security creates a complex dilemma for civil liberties.
In reflecting on the extensive literature and research on intelligence failures and particularly that which ensued in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US, Indonesia and those in Europe, this analysis concludes that intelligence, and particularly Western intelligence, cannot be completely at fault for the failure to identify appropriately and forewarn about the occurrence of historical discontinuity events. Western policymakers, economic advisers, as well as socio-economic elites' performance throughout the 1980s and 1990s reveals flaws in long-term policy planning and decision-making with serious repercussions for strategic intelligence analysis. The inability to forecast historical discontinuity events is a key element of intelligence and policy which needs further revision.