The ascension of Yoshihide Suga from Chief Cabinet Secretary to the Japanese premiership on the 16th September sees the country taking a step closer to becoming the sixth “eye” in the Five Eyes intelligence alliance. While the mooted expansion of the alliance is celebrated at home by centre-right politicians as pivotal in curtailing the growing global influence of China, for human rights campaigners it symbolises a further erosion of our rights and freedoms. 

THE FIVE EYES ALLIANCE

The origins of the Five Eyes (FVEY) alliance can be traced to the Second World War, during which a concerted effort was made to align British and American signals intelligence (SIGNIT) operations. Post-war the alignment was formalised with the 1946 UKUSA Agreement, which would later be amended to include other anglophone allies: Australia, Canada and New Zealand. 

Fruitful intelligence sharing operations during the Cold War saw the alliance grow in scale and importance, resulting in the development the ECHELON surveillance programme, which, by the 1990s had developed into a sophisticated, global intelligence apparatus capable of intercepting a range of public, private and commercial communications. 

Despite declining in importance during the period following the Cold War, the alliance was reinvigorated after 9/11 with the onset of the Global War on Terror. During this period FVEY operations dramatically increased in scope, with members monitoring the communications of UN officials, foreign leaders and diplomats, as well as, domestic citizens as part of its intelligence operations.

In 2013, NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden offered perhaps the most extensive image of FVEY surveillance programmes and cooperation. However, the classified nature of operations means that the true extent of alliance’s reach still cannot be accurately captured. 

THE HUMAN RIGHTS IMPLICATIONS OF THE FVEY AGREEMENT 

The FVEY Agreement’s dramatic increase in technical capabilities and significance during the course of the 21st Century presents a danger to our human rights, which are being increasingly eroded. The agreement’s creation of a well-documented ‘backdoor’, whereby member states can outsource surveillance of their citizenry to fellow ‘eyes’, presents a full frontal attack on domestic legal frameworks expressly designed to maintain democratic oversight; govern the rules of accessing and storing data; protect privacy and ensure freedom of expression. Indeed, the insidious creep of surveillance facilitated by the alliance sees a backwards slide in relation to the right to privacy; freedom of association and expression- a claim supported by the UN High Commission for Human Rights which pointedly observes “the negative impact that [FVEY] surveillance and/or interception of communications... may have on the exercise and enjoyment of human rights”. 

WHAT EXPANSION COULD MEAN

As aforementioned, with the appointment of Suga as Prime Minister, the prospect of Japan becoming the sixth ‘eye’ becomes more realistic. Lauded as a valued ally in attempts to mitigate the growing influence of China, Japan, along with its technological capabilities, is seen as a prized addition to FVEY, adding a further string to the alliance’s bow by broadening its ability to intercept and monitor global communications. 

Indeed, Japan’s proposed membership of FVEY will undoubtedly precipitate a deepening of the alliance’s operations, seeing the further entrenchment of opaque, inaccessible intelligence structures that lie beyond democratic control and scrutiny. However, more importantly, the expansion of the alliance also facilitates the widening of backdoor surveillance and encroachment of the state further into the private sphere. Truly, expansion serves to hasten the erosion of hard-earned rights that ordinarily protect individuals and groups from an overzealous surveillance state. 

The prospect of ‘Six Eyes’ consequently raises an important question: does a bigger alliance mean less freedoms at home? The answer is a resounding yes. 

Finley is a Politics and International Relations Graduate from Queen Mary University of London and currently an MSc Candidate in International Planning at UCL. He has a keen interest in the intersection of urbanity, human rights and justice. 

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