This paper provides insights into intelligence reform efforts in Croatia, including lessons learned by the author during his tenure as director of Croatia’s Security and Intelligence Agency and recommendations for reform efforts in countries in transition.

More specifically, the paper provides insights into the main challenges faced during the reform processes, starting from the adjustments of the legal frameworks, to the implementation of the reform agenda.

As a starting point, the agency’s self-assessment helped to identify intelligence requirements and priorities and pointed to the need of investing in the development of new and effective intelligence capabilities within the service. Maybe one of the most important insights was the acknowledgement that effective oversight helped earning public trust and respect. Modernization and transformation processes had to address decentralization of authority, the balancing of privacy rights and the initiation of a public dialogue on the role and future of intelligence.