This article argues that the failure to address intelligence agencies as public organizations part and parcel with the overt machinery of government constitutes a significant lacuna both in the specialist study of intelligence and the broader discipline of public administration studies. The role and status of intelligence institutions as aspects of the machinery of central government is examined, along with the prospects of certain key paradigms in the field for understanding those institutions are considered. Finally, the implications for the wider study of decision-making, policy and public management will be examined. The research for the following article was made possible by a 2004–5 Research Fellowship from the Leverhulme Trust and Seminar Series grant RES-451–26–0480 from the Economics and Social Sciences Research Council.