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The External Assessments Bureau (EAB) is New Zealand’s central foreign assessments agency. Its function is to provide objective assessments to the Prime Minister, other ministers, senior officials and New Zealand’s diplomatic missions abroad, of external events and developments that bear on New Zealand’s interests internationally. In carrying out this function, EAB’s purpose is to help to inform decision making by the government on external issues.
EAB is one of the six business units of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (DPMC), and forms part of New Zealand’s intelligence community. It uses the widest possible range of information available from open media sources, such as academic research, commentaries by think-tanks, and internet sites. It also draws on diplomatic reporting and other forms of classified material from intelligence sources. This intelligence is provided by the Government Communications Security Bureau and the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service.
Compared with most parts of the public service, EAB is an unusual organisation. It has no role in providing policy advice to the government and no operational functions, and nor does it provide services to the public. Its mandate is sharply defined:
EAB’s offices are located in the Reserve Bank Building, 2 The Terrace, Wellington.
EAB is a small agency, with an establishment of 30 and a budget of $3.345 million (2006-07). It has a busy registry, which has a complex range of tasks involving the receipt and secure handling of information and the distribution of EAB’s products; a small library, crucial in supporting EAB’s heavy use of media and other information; IT staff, who manage EAB’s information management systems, some of them purpose-designed for EAB; a security officer, with an essential role in helping to uphold EAB’s standards as a high-security workplace; and a group of 18 analysts. All of the analysts have a keen interest in international affairs, but their academic specialisations extend widely, including liberal arts, international relations, politics, law, foreign languages, and physical and biological sciences.
Since July 2006 EAB’s director has been Gregory Baughen, who joined EAB as an analyst in 1990 with a background in strategic studies.
EAB’s antecedents date back to 1949 when, under a different name and with different functions, it was part of New Zealand’s military. Over time EAB has evolved into a fully civilian agency. Since 1990 EAB has been part of DPMC. It is situated in this central location within the government system because its work is based on information drawn from many departments and agencies. The resulting assessments touch on a wide range of government activities and policies, and so are of particular importance to the Prime Minister and Cabinet.
The director of EAB is accountable to the chief executive of DPMC for EAB's day-to-day operations, but is directly accountable to the Prime Minister for the content and quality of its assessments. This arrangement makes sure that EAB does relevant work that is clearly independent of that done by policy departments.
EAB maintains relationships with similar organisations overseas. Exchanges of information and views with counterpart organisations help to enhance EAB’s capacity and effectiveness, and provide a measure of peer review.
The greater part of EAB’s assessments are focussed on political and economic developments overseas, but EAB also covers environmental and scientific issues, security and strategic issues (such as international terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction) and biographic reporting on overseas dignitaries who are meeting New Zealand ministers. As far as possible, EAB seeks to provide a global geographic coverage.
Assessments are produced in a variety of formats. Short situational reports are issued by EAB’s director as events unfold and information becomes available. These reports may help inform members of inter-departmental watch groups that are brought together to co-ordinate New Zealand’s responses to external crises and threats to New Zealand. (These watch groups meet under the chair of the director of the Domestic and External Security Group, another of the business units within DPMC). Longer-term and more strategic assessments are usually considered and issued by the National Assessments Committee. This in turn is subordinate to the Officials Committee for Domestic and External Security Coordination, the committee of chief executives and other senior officials that oversees New Zealand’s security and intelligence community.