Journal of Democracy

Abstract:

Over the last decade, a sophisticated and lucrative industry has sprung up that puts potent surveillance and intelligence capabilities in the hands of a wide range of private actors. Clandestine influence operations, targeted espionage against civil society, and political subversion—an organized activity whereby the decay of legitimate political institutions is deliberately and surreptitiously seeded—are easier to undertake than ever before. At least three contingent factors have combined to create conditions for subversion to become more widely practiced: 1) neoliberal globalization; 2) the rise and spread of businesses that offer private intelligence, surveillance, and "black ops"; and 3) the digital communications environment. Liberal democracies need to bring greater transparency, oversight, and public accountability to their own clandestine, law-enforcement, signals, and other intelligence agencies. If subversion continues to flourish unchecked, then the rule of law, public accountability, and even the scientific research necessary for our very survival in the face of these risks will suffer.