The last chapter reviewed intelligence's purely national importance in the present and future, but its international significance also needs to be considered. Chapter 9 outlined specific contributions from national intelligence to international security, and chapter 11 discussed effects of intelligence as threats. Here we draw on these chapters to consider wider questions. Does intelligence make for a more secure world or a more dangerous one – still in the restricted sense of avoiding wars or limiting them? Does the answer suggest ways in which intelligence's security-enhancing effects can be increased?

We have already seen how national intelligence can be used for mediation and conflict resolution, including such means as its provision to potential antagonists as a stabilizing measure; its use in international cooperation on counter-terrorism and limiting international arms transfers; and the verification of arms control and other international agreements. But these are still applications of national intelligence to serve national interests when these are identified with promoting international security. When this is not the case, then national intelligence support for this international end is not forthcoming. One question is therefore whether arrangements for international action could have permanent intelligence machinery embodied in them, so that they are not subject to national initiatives over inputs or to national intelligence biases incorporated in them. Even if practicable, such arrangements would still be supplementary to national intelligence, and not replacements for it. Hence there is the further question whether national intelligence itself should be developed in ‘security-friendly’ directions.