In the past decade there have been significant changes in the operations of security and intelligence agencies throughout Europe. This edited collection of papers by an international group of experts examines recent and current developments in the light of the rule of law and democracy and specifically addresses a number of common themes.

The biggest problem in analyzing security services in any country is a lack of real information. When documents are declassified they are generally only of interest to historians. These essays explore the touchy subject of security in Europe.

'A timely, richly informative and probing analysis of the structure and functioning of national security policing in ten democratic countries. Together with a prior volume National Security and the Rule of Law, edited by Dennis Toellborg, this book is required reading for anyone seeking to understand the empirical and normative issues in the comparative study of political policing.' Gary T. Marx, Professor Emeritus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and author of Undercover: Police Surveillance in America '...a very welcomed, significant and necessary addition to the literature on intelligence.' International Criminal Justice Review