Intelligence reforms are highly contested both in scholarship and practice. Being governmental structures of great perceived importance for national security, the organization of national intelligence systems is often a point of contention between its vested parties. Earlier research is problematic in that it actively contributes to the favoring of certain forms of organization over others, in which centralization is a trend.
In a Critical Discourse Analysis, this study seeks to critically examine the rationalization of intelligence reform in the current Swedish case, in which the government seemingly is moving forward with the creation of a new foreign service. This is done using the theoretical dichotomy between centralization and decentralization, as defined by John D. Bansemer. In short, the study finds that the creation of a new Swedish foreign intelligence service is rationalized through a use of language that fails to posit centralization and decentralization as fundamental tensions in the organization of intelligence, instead naturalizing what is in large centralizing efforts to the ideals of decentralization.