Covert Actions and the Realm of Legitimacy

Covert Actions and the Realm of Legitimacy
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Covert Actions and the Realm of Legitimacy
The changing foreign policy and national security priorities have cast doubts on the future of covert actions. Nations and individuals are becoming sensitive to the understanding that the intelligence community surveils their data. Concerns have been raised on the covert avenues that nations employ to fight global crimes. Present trends indicate that the fight against terrorism has risen to become the primary priority in the intelligence community. The emphasis on counter-terrorism activities has been accompanied by expanded budgets, intelligence programs, and capabilities. Amidst such advancements comes the growth in covert actions. As more intelligence is gathered on illegal or terrorist activities throughout the world, the intelligence community makes every attempt to avert any ills that may threaten security. The recent past has accompanied concerns about nations surveilling one another, thereby raising the question of the legitimacy of covert actions even amidst the fight against terrorism. This paper assesses the prospect of covert actions and the realm of legitimacy. Understanding covert actions and the value they add to national security should help settle the debates on legitimacy through the ethical realms.
Covert Actions
A covert action or operation has attracted different definitions considering the secrecy surrounding such activities. The U.S. government and any other government indulged in covert operations normally intend to keep the elements of the actions as secretive as possible. Nevertheless, covert actions refer to operations, activities, or actions conducted by the intelligence community to conceal the identities of the perpetrators of the operations. An ideal covert action should occur without the targeted parties noticing any malicious activities within their territories. The National Security Act Sec. 503 (e) defines covert action as an activity of the government geared towards influencing military, economic, and political conditions abroad in which the role of the perpetrating agencies is intended not to be acknowledged publicly. Covert operations are conducted because both policymakers and the intelligence community believe that conducting secret operations is the only avenue to achieve the desired outcomes. Most governments employ covert operations to stay ahead in enemy activities and mitigate outcomes that threaten security.[Melancon, Louis P. "Altering the Deal: Explaining Variation in U.S. Intelligence Reform." Order No. 10978619, The George Washington University, 2019, 109.]
The U.S. has a structured legal platform in which to understand the scope of covert actions. The U.S. law demands that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) must lead in all the covert actions. However, other intelligence community members, such as the NSA, can be involved in covert actions if sanctioned by the president. The agencies involved in covert operations must actively inform the president of Congress on the progress of the actions. The authority accorded to the CIA in conducting covert actions emanate from the National Security Act of 1947, in which President Ronald Reagan issued an executive order to allow the CIA to execute special activities that are both political and military that the U.S. could deny legally. The Intelligence Authorization Act of 1991further cemented the CIA’s mandate to conduct covert actions by legitimizing the creation of a Special Activities Division (SAD). The activities of SAD activities are overseen by oversight committees both in Congress and the senate. The specific elements of covert actions can include support for subversion, support for coups d’état, assassinations, and sabotage. The activities can be wide-range and be conducted in different regions simultaneously.[Adams, Richard. "The Bureaucratization of War: Moral Challenges Exemplified by the Covert Lethal Drone." Ethics & Global Politics 6, no. 4 (2013): 245] [Ward-Hunt, Robert. "American Secrets, American Transparency: Analysis of the Freedom of Information Act as Implemented by the US Intelligence Community." Order No. 3633429, University of Colorado at Denver, 2014, 109.]
Covert actions can take different forms, and the frequency of applications depends on the needs of the involved government or agencies. The most prominent form of covert action is psychological warfare. Psychological warfare accommodates the planned use of psychological actions such as propaganda to influence behaviors, attitudes, emotions, and opinions of various foreign groups. Psychological warfare intends to influence the achievement of specific national objectives. Propaganda can be used as a conversionary tool that influences individuals to abandon a particular group to join other groups. The intelligence community can also employ divisive propaganda to trigger divisions within groups. Propaganda can also be targeted towards civilians whose inputs can be necessary for weakening the activities of militias or deviant groups that threaten security. Conducting psychological warfare effectively must be accompanied by effective intelligence gathering aimed at developing the avenues of achieving the most reliable information before any courses of the nation are taken.[Linnington, Abigail T. "Unconventional Warfare in U.S. Foreign Policy: U.S. Support of Insurgencies in Afghanistan, Nicaragua, and Iraq from 1979-2001." Order No. 3559052, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (Tufts University), 2013: 173.]
Covert actions also focus on information warfare that is effectively enabled with advancements in information technology. Terrorist groups or other illegal activity groups rely on information technology often to conduct their operations. Information operations can be employed to counter activities for specific benefits. Understanding the weaknesses of terrorists’ information structures makes it easy for members of the intelligence community to understand the plans of such groups before they execute their objectives. Information warfare is normally conducted through surveillance in which different technological tools are used to assess and understand the moves of targeted individuals. Advancements in the information era ease covert actions on such fronts. However, this raises legal and ethical questions on surveilling unsuspecting individuals. While the intelligence community consistently relies on the value of ensuring national security, people must be concerned if the intelligence community could access their pieces of information without any authorization.[Cooley, Sean. "The Ineffectiveness of American Covert Regime Change Operations during the Struggle against Islamist Terrorism." American Diplomacy (Mar 29, 2016): 8.]
Covert actions can also be political or economic. Political trends are valuable to understanding global security trends. Nations need the power to influence the political trends in the world. On some occasions, political instabilities lead to the rise of rebellions or terrorist activities. As such, combating unhelpful political activities is vital in ensuring global security. Remarkably, politicians can make laws that aid in the fight against terrorism or those that fuel terror activities. In the same breath, economic activities should be subjected to constant screening to help in unearthing malicious activities. Presently, one of the major concerns for the intelligence community is the financing of terrorist groups. Since disabling the resource supplies of terror groups is vital in disabling such groups entirely, covert economic action has grown to be vital to contemporary security trends. The intelligence community is motivated to mitigate security concerns before they are implemented.[Ward-Hunt, Robert. "American Secrets, American Transparency: Analysis of the Freedom of Information Act as Implemented by the US Intelligence Community." Order No. 3633429, University of Colorado at Denver, 2014, 109.]
Importance of Covert Actions
Covert actions remain vital to the security capabilities of the present day. In the last three decades, there has been an escalation in terrorist activities. Different terror groups are taking advantage of technological advancements to wage war against nations or individuals. Leading in the fights is, hence a vital component of the outcome. A nation such as the U.S. has courted enemies from different regions following its intention to fight terrorism. On such a platform, the U.S. must put more initiatives to protect its people from attacks. Part of staying ahead in the confines of security concerns comes with understanding the enemy. Exploring aspects of terror groups such as their plans and their capabilities ease the interception of their courses of action.[Godinez, Jonathan J. "The Vested Interest Theory: Novel Methodology Examining US-Foreign Electoral Intervention." Journal of Strategic Security 11, no. 2 (2018): 26.]
Covert action also helps in aligning the global trends. Nations are faced with threats from different platforms. Political, economic, or technological threats emerge consistently. Such threats can be challenging to combat through direct military actions. Instead, employing stealth approaches encompassed in covert actions helps in achieving more clinical results. It is also notable that covert actions can be employed to rectify various socio-political, economic, or technological trends without triggering global concerns. Executing actions in the glare of the public can be challenging considering the prospective criticism. Put simply, covert actions remain the primary avenue of instilling impacts on various global trends without attracting uproars from the public.[Melancon, Louis P. "Altering the Deal: Explaining Variation in U.S. Intelligence Reform." Order No. 10978619, The George Washington University, 2019, 109.]
Intelligence efficiency is another factor that has steered the value of covert actions. The intelligence community must be committed to executing its mandate with the highest possible efficiency. One of the areas of ethical concerns presently is the collateral damages that various direct military activities attract. More people are likely to die from drone strikes if the right pieces of information are not collected. Various aspects of covert action help in profiling targets and easing elimination whenever necessary. Ultimately, covert actions eliminate ills that could otherwise e costlier. For instance, monitoring terrorist activities and intercepting their plans effectively saves lives. Notably, amidst the benefits that covert action accords nations, questions are still asked whether such prospects are effective or a recipe for more future challenges.[Linnington, Abigail T. "Unconventional Warfare in U.S. Foreign Policy: U.S. Support of Insurgencies in Afghanistan, Nicaragua, and Iraq from 1979-2001." Order No. 3559052, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (Tufts University), 2013: 173.] [Adams, Richard. "The Bureaucratization of War: Moral Challenges Exemplified by the Covert Lethal Drone." Ethics & Global Politics 6, no. 4 (2013): 245]
Ethical/Legal Concerns
Covert action has attracted multiple ethical and legal concerns. Primarily, the actions are conducted to surveil individuals based on suspicion and nothing else. The chal...