Bellaby, R. orcid.org/0000-0002-6975-0681 (2019) Too many secrets? When should the intelligence community be allowed to keep secrets? Polity, 51 (1). pp. 62-94. ISSN 0032-3497
Abstract
In recent years, revelations regarding reports of torture by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and the quiet growth of the National Security Agency’s pervasive cyber-surveillance system have brought into doubt the level of trust afforded to the intelligence community. The question of its trustworthiness requires determining how much secrecy it should enjoy and what mechanisms should be employed to detect and prevent future abuse. My argument is not a call for complete transparency, however, as secret intelligence does play an important and ethical role in society. Rather, I argue that existing systems built on a prioritization of democratic assumptions are fundamentally ill-equipped for dealing with the particular challenge of intelligence secrecy. As the necessary circle of secrecy is extended, political actors are insulated from the very public gaze that ensures they are working in line with the political community’s best interests. Therefore, a new framework needs to be developed, one that this article argues should be based on the just war tradition, where the principles of just cause, legitimate authority, last resort, proportionality, and discrimination are able to balance the secrecy that the intelligence community needs in order to detect and prevent threats with the harm that too much or incorrect secrecy can cause to people.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2018 University of Chicago Press. This is an author produced version of a paper subsequently published in Polity. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | Secrets; ethics; intelligence; just war |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Department of Politics and International Relations (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 06 Oct 2017 13:52 |
Last Modified: | 08 Dec 2019 01:38 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1086/701165 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | University of Chicago Press |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1086/701165 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:122022 |