Review by professor Nils Petter Gleditsch, PRIO
Satellitt
Spionkrigen – by Bård Wormdal
Bård Wormdal has written an impressive book about the no longer entirely secret spy collaboration between Norway and the USA. Many key aspects of this picture are already known – that it is a bilateral collaboration (not part of NATO), that it is largely funded by the USA (the percentage varies between sources), and that it has been kept away from public scrutiny, partly by not being addressed in the Storting (or only after a significantly simplified and somewhat misleading presentation). Wormdal enhances the picture by detailing the significance of many of the installations that are or have been placed on Norwegian soil, and by interviewing a number of former participants in this work. He also makes extensive use of Edward Snowden’s leaks.
Passed national assembly
Wormdal’s book covers a broad canvas. Technical intelligence directed at Russia as well as spies sneaking over the border. Norwegian companies that have encountered problems because the intelligence service has made contact. Poor war preparedness in Vardø despite the fact that the American Globus radar is assumed to be a prioritized target in a conflict. Hacking and other offensive cyber warfare also from the Norwegian side. The EOS committee’s problems in conducting genuine oversight of the intelligence service. Secrecy. Former intelligence chiefs who do not want to say anything, yet some of them say a bit anyway. Politicians who refuse to comment on the secret services beyond stating that they have incredible capacity and serve Norwegian interests. In this context, it is striking how many issues have passed through the national assembly without anyone demanding more detailed information or clearer answers. Have SV and Rødt, Red, been asleep at the wheel?
Very readable book
In the introduction (p. 15), Wormdal poses the question: “Does the Intelligence Service actually serve Norwegian interests?” He doesn’t really provide an answer, but he well documents why the question is important. Several of his sources defend the significant American intelligence presence in Oslo with a sort of quid pro quo. The concessions to the Americans are necessary to gain access to American intelligence data that may be relevant for Norwegian security. The question is whether this is actually a larger quid pro quo: we support American intelligence, even when it concerns matters that do not directly impact Norwegian neighboring areas. What we get in return is the American nuclear umbrella, along with the uncertainty and moral dilemmas that life under the nuclear umbrella entails.
In short, a very readable book!
