The continent has diverse histories, politics, government systems and people. Each of the countries under analysis face similar challenges, such as with governance, rule of law, economics and development. Yet, different historical periods also produce divergent outcomes. Broadly similar themes— transition, scandal, corruption, authoritarianism, oversight, international competition and cooperation—ensure that the chapters speak to each other as they provide the reader with an overview of the challenges that intelligence services face in the developing world.

This is the first edited collection to explores African intelligence services from both scholarly and professional perspectives. It focuses on African agency by highlighting historical and contemporary challenges, including successes and failures. Taking a wide-ranging approach across a variety of African countries from different eras, selected African security institutions are analyzed with attention to colonial, national and local issues and how the intelligence services responded to those issues. The types of responses are key to the successes or failures, which in turn impacted stability, transparency, governance, rule of law and foreign relations.