There is a historic irony to the circumstances that have produced this situation. Australia's intelligence community evolved in large part as a response to British and US concerns about our ability to keep secrets. In the early days of the Cold War, neither London nor Washington were prepared to risk their diplomatic relationships by sharing sensitive information with a country whose intelligence processes they viewed as shoddy and inept. And on numerous occasions since, lapses in Australian secrecy have been met with heavy-handed demands by Washington for reform and discipline, at pains of having our access downgraded or withdrawn.

Today, the shoe is on the other foot. For a long time, intelligence co-operation has been at the forefront of Australia's alliance with the United States. Australia's privileged access has entailed many benefits with few, if any, costs. But that has now changed. Ultimately, Edward Snowden is responsible for the damage he has caused. But at a deeper level, Snowden is a product of immense systemic failures in the US intelligence community. There's no way to sugar-coat it, Australia has been profoundly let down by the US, whose unwieldy intelligence system has now exacted a huge cost on us, namely the thorough and potentially long-term destruction of one of our most crucial diplomatic relationships.

Of course, Washington is reeling too. Revelations of indiscriminate data collection in Europe have strained its own relationships and cost it much in terms of trust and good will. Yet America is far better placed than we are to absorb diplomatic damage. It remains the key provider of security in Asia, Europe and much of the Middle East. Other countries depend on it to a great extent, so they can't afford to allow their indignation at being spied on to interfere with day-to-day co-operation.

Australia is in a much more precarious position. We have fewer key relationships, and they are not skewed in our favour by such pronounced asymmetries of power. Even though Snowden wasn't our failure, we've arguably taken the biggest hit.

If Edward Snowden had come from Australia's intelligence community, our ''eye'' in the ''Five-Eyes'' intelligence-sharing network would probably have already been gouged out. Unfortunately, the same logic doesn't work in reverse. Australia has virtually no leverage to make demands of the US. At the very least, however, Washington does owe Australia an acknowledgement of the damage done, and if it hasn't been provided already, a full account of Snowden's intelligence treasure-trove as it pertains to Australian interests.