The governance of covert action: asymmetric power and the British plan to overthrow Saddam

This article discusses covert action within the context of the U.S. law. The first section describes the main elements of the U.S. legal regime, including the definition of covert action and the “traditional activity” exceptions, the elements of a covert action finding, and the thresholds and requirements for congressional notification. The second section describes some of the significant limitations on the conduct of covert action. The third section discusses the nature of executive branch legal practice in this area of the law. And the last section draws conclusions about the role of national security law within the context of covert action.

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What constitutes successful covert action? Evaluating unacknowledged interventionism in foreign affairs

Review of International Studies ◽

10.1017/s0260210521000231 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-18

Author(s):

Rory Cormac ◽

Calder Walton ◽

Damien Van Puyvelde

Keyword(s):

International Relations ◽

Conceptual Model ◽

Golden Age ◽

Foreign Affairs ◽

Public Understanding ◽

Social Construct ◽

Covert Action ◽

Socially Constructed ◽

State Activity

Abstract Covert action has long been a controversial tool of international relations. However, there is remarkably little public understanding about whether it works and, more fundamentally, about what constitutes success in this shadowy arena of state activity. This article distills competing criteria of success and examines how covert actions become perceived as successes. We develop a conceptual model of covert action success as a social construct and illustrate it through the case of ‘the golden age of CIA operations’. The socially constructed nature of success has important implications not just for evaluating covert actions but also for using, and defending against, them.

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An unfinished battle: George C. Marshall and intelligence in the early Cold War

War in History ◽

10.1177/09683445211017939 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 096834452110179

Author(s):

Raphaël Ramos

Keyword(s):

Cold War ◽

Security Policy ◽

Central Intelligence Agency ◽

Truman Administration ◽

Intelligence Community ◽

Intelligence Agency ◽

Covert Action ◽

The Us ◽

The Cold War ◽

Second World

This article deals with the influence of Gen. George C. Marshall on the foundation of the US intelligence community after the Second World War. It argues that his uneven achievements demonstrate how the ceaseless wrangling within the Truman administration undermined the crafting of a coherent intelligence policy. Despite his bureaucratic skills and prominent positions, Marshall struggled to achieve his ends on matters like signals intelligence, covert action, or relations between the State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency. Yet he crafted an enduring vision of how intelligence should supplement US national security policy that remained potent throughout the Cold War and beyond.

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Portmanteau test for the asymmetric power GARCH model when the power is unknown

Statistical Papers ◽

10.1007/s00362-021-01257-w ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Yacouba Boubacar Maïnassara ◽

Othman Kadmiri ◽

Bruno Saussereau

Keyword(s):

Garch Model ◽

Asymmetric Power

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Asymmetric Power Relations in Gynaecological Consultations for Cervical Cancer Prevention: Biomedical and Gender Issues

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph18157850 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (15) ◽

pp. 7850

Author(s):

Carla Freijomil-Vázquez ◽

Denise Gastaldo ◽

Carmen Coronado ◽

María-Jesús Movilla-Fernández

Keyword(s):

Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia ◽

Power Relations ◽

Intraepithelial Neoplasia ◽

Cervical Cancer Prevention ◽

Emotional Reactions ◽

Limited Information ◽

Structured Interviews ◽

Biomedical Knowledge ◽

Asymmetric Power ◽

And Gender

A generic qualitative research, using a poststructuralist feminist perspective, was conducted in a Spanish gynaecology unit with the following aims: (a) to analyse how asymmetric power relations in relation to biomedical knowledge and gender shape the medical encounters between gynaecologists and women diagnosed with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia and (b) to explore the cognitive, moral, and emotional responses expressed by patients. A total of 21 women diagnosed with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia were recruited through purposive sampling. Semi-structured interviews were recorded and transcribed, and a thematic analysis was carried out. Two major themes were identified: (a) gendered relations in cervical intraepithelial neoplasia medical encounters are based on hidden, judgmental moral assumptions, making women feel irresponsible and blamed for contracting the human papillomavirus infection; (b) biomedical power is based on the positivist assumption of a single truth (scientific knowledge), creating asymmetric relations rendering women ignorant and infantilised. Women reacted vehemently during the interviews, revealing a nexus of cognitive, moral, and emotional reactions. In medical encounters for management of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia, patients feel they are being morally judged and given limited information, generating emotional distress. Healthcare professionals should question whether their practices are based on stereotypical gender assumptions which lead to power asymmetries during encounters.

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Cultivating Cultural Differences in Asymmetric Power Relations

International Journal of Cross Cultural Management ◽

10.1177/1470595809346600 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 9 (3) ◽

pp. 339-358 ◽

Cited By ~ 44

Author(s):

Sierk Ybema ◽

Hyunghae Byun

Keyword(s):

Cultural Differences ◽

Cultural Difference ◽

Cultural Distance ◽

Social Contexts ◽

Specific Power ◽

Work Relations ◽

Organizational Settings ◽

Japanese Firms ◽

Intercultural Encounters ◽

Asymmetric Power

In this article we integrate findings from interviews and ethnographic case studies to explore issues of culture and identity in Japanese—Dutch work relations in two different contexts: Japanese firms in the Netherlands and Dutch firms in Japan. It is suggested that cultural identities do not carry a pre-given meaning that people passively enact, as is sometimes assumed, but become infused with meaning in organizational actors’ interpretations that are embedded in specific social contexts. The research contribution this article makes is twofold. First, it illustrates how, in different organizational settings, cultural differences are enacted differently in people’s identity talk, underlining the context-dependent and constructed nature of culture and cultural distance in intercultural encounters. Second, it highlights the particular relevance of a power-sensitive understanding of claims of cultural difference by revealing small, but significant differences in organizational actors’ cultural identity talk that are intimately related to the specific power asymmetries within our research participants’ organizations.

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