This text presents a comparative, international study of commissions of inquiry that have been convened in response to extraordinary failures and scandals.

In recent years, commissions of inquiry have been common to the politics of the United States, Britain, Canada, and Australia. Recent years have seen a much wider range of states establish commissions of inquiry into intelligence and security issues, and they have also played important roles in transitions in Latin America and Eastern Europe. Commissions of inquiry are no longer even the exclusive preserve of states, as transnational institutions such as the United Nations and European Union have begun to convoke them.

This groundbreaking book comprehensively examines commissions of inquiry around the world, which have become important and increasingly invoked tools to discover truth, curb abuses, and reconcile national security imperatives with the constraints of law and human rights. It offers timely insights for national security analysts, government officials, diplomats, lawyers, scholars, human rights monitors, students, and citizens.

1 Toward the Comparative Study of National Security Commissions of Inquiry Stuart Farson and Mark Phythian 2 Influence without Power: Commissions of Inquiry and the Australian Intelligence Community Andrew O'Neil 3 Public Inquiries in Canada: Making Espionage, Organizational Culture, Wrongdoing, and Mass Murder More Transparent Stuart Farson and Reg Whitaker 4 The Politics of Commissions of Inquiry into Security and Intelligence Controversies in Britain Mark Phythian 5 Inquiring into Dirty Wars: A "Huge Smokescreen of Humbug"? Peter Gill 6 The Role of Judges Ian Leigh 7 The Politics of U.S. National Security Commissions Kenneth Kitts 8 Investigative Oversight of the American Intelligence Community: Promise and Performance Glenn Hastedt 9 Commissions of Inquiry as Agents of Change in the Israeli Intelligence Community Shlomo Shpiro 10 Legislative Commissions of Inquiry in Spain Antonio M. Diaz Fernandez 11 Cover Up or Dig Up? Inquiries into Security Services in Welfare States: The Cases of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark Janne Flyghed 12 Commissions of Inquiry in South Africa's Intelligence History 1960-2005 Kevin A. O'Brien 13 Commissions of Inquiry into National Security and Defense Affairs in the Southern Cone: The Cases of Argentina and Chile Jose Manuel Ugarte 14 European Parliament and Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Inquiries into Intelligence and Security Issues Aidan Wills 15 The United Nations Iraq Oil-for-Food Inquiry Reid Morden 16 Inside a National Security Inquiry: The Aspin-Brown Commission at Work Loch K. Johnson Selected Bibliography Index About the Contributors