Spies as Informants: Triangulation and the Interpretation of Elite Interview Data in the Study of the Intelligence and Security Services
| Author | Philip H.J. Davies |
| Published date | 01 February 2001 |
| Date | 01 February 2001 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9256.00138 |
| Subject Matter | Doing Politics |
Doing Politics
Spies as Informants: Triangulation and
the Interpretation of Elite Interview
Data in the Study of the Intelligence
and Security Services
Philip H.J. Davies
University of Reading
This article examines the application of ‘triangulation’ to the use of elite interviewing in political
science, with specific reference to the study of the intelligence and security services. It is argued
that the problems involved in using elite interviews in security and intelligence studies are no
different than in other areas of political science, but simply more pronounced. It is further argued
that these problems can be most effectively addressed in terms of the sociological ‘triangulation’
strategy of multi-methodological research. The article concludes that this approach is, moreover,
generally applicable to political studies at large.
Introduction
In his 1996 article in Politics on doing elite interviews, David Richards winds up
with the intellectual cliffhanger that, on completing his programme of interviews,
‘the interviewer has now reached one of the most important stages – analysing the
information provided by the interviewees. This, in itself, is no small task’ (Richards,
1996, pp. 203–204). It is indeed no small task, and the problems and options in
handling interview data, elite or otherwise, have been a major issue in sociological
discussion for decades. For the most part, however, the solutions and options
developed in sociological literature have had only the most limited dissemination
outside that field. This is regrettable in view of the widespread concern with the
issue in almost very branch of the social sciences. There is, however, one field of
political studies in which the issues of elite interviewing are particularly pronounced,
and that is the study of intelligence and security agencies. In the following discus-
sion, I propose to show how the application of certain sociological concepts to the
problems of elite interviewing applied to security and intelligence studies can
provide tools of more general use to political scientists, even where their research
interest is less sensitive and fraught with secrecy than studying espionage.
Information about the intelligence services is notoriously sparse (undoubtedly a
major reason that security and intelligence studies remains a minority interest in
political science), and the official documentary records available at sites such as the
Public Record Office and India Office Library of Records have been ‘sanitised’, with
so-called ‘weeders’ trying to remove any trace of British intelligence information
POLITICS: 2001 VOL 21(1), 73–80
© Political Studies Association, 2001.
Published by Blackwell Publishers, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA
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