agency operating environment

Also known as the agency operating situation. The sum of the conditions in a particular operating area (i.e. a state, its part or a group of states) where the intelligence service worked, which influenced and determined the choice of means, methods and forms of the intelligence work. The decisive influence was played by the country's internal and foreign policy, its relations with Czechoslovakia and Eastern Bloc States. The core elements of the agency operating environment include:

• political, economic and military factors;
• administrative and police regime, local counter-intelligence activity;
• geographical, demographic and transport characteristics;
• peculiarities of the way of life, habits and customs of the population.