Spying Through a Glass Darkly: The Ethics of Espionage and Counter-Intelligence (New Topics in Applied Philosophy)

Cécile Fabre draws back the curtain on the ethics of espionage and counterintelligence. Espionage and counter-intelligence activities, both real and imagined, weave a complex and alluring story. Yet there is hardly any serious philosophical work on the subject. Cécile Fabre presents a systematic account of the ethics of espionage and counterintelligence. She argues that such operations, in the context of war and foreign policy, are morally justified as a means, but only as a means, to protect oneself and third parties from ongoing violations of fundamental rights. In doing so, she addresses a range of ethical questions: are intelligence officers morally permitted to bribe, deceive, blackmail, and manipulate as a way to uncover state secrets? Is cyberespionage morally permissible? Are governments morally permitted to resort to the mass surveillance of their and foreign populations as a means to unearth possible threats against national security? Can treason ever be morally permissible? Can it ever be legitimate to resort to economic espionage in the name of national security? The book offers answers to those questions through a blend of philosophical arguments and historical examples. Cover Spying Through a Glass Darkly: The Ethics of Espionage and Counter-intelligence Copyright Dedication Acknowledgements Contents Introduction 1: Building blocks 1.1 Introduction 1.2 ‘Spiders’ Webs’: Classical Moral and Political Thought 1.3 Three Contemporary Approaches to Espionage 1.3.1 Dirty Hands 1.3.2 Contractarianism 1.3.3 Just War Theory 1.4 Foundations 1.4.1 Fundamental Rights 1.4.2 Defensive Harm Justified Harm and Uncertainty Defensive Harm and Institutions Defensive Harm and Foreign Polic 1.5 Conclusion 2: Political Secrets 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Secrecy 2.2.1 Defining Secrecy 2.2.2 The Right to Secrecy Rights-holders The content of the right Duties and duty-bearers 2.3 Security 2.3.1 The Argument 2.3.2 A Complication 2.4 Democratic Agency 2.4.1 The Argument 2.4.2 Secrecy and Democratic Accountability 2.4.3 Secrecy and Non-democratic Regimes 2.5 Conclusion 3: Defending Espionage 3.1 Introduction 3.2 The Permission to Spy 3.2.1 The Argument 3.2.2 Three Objections 3.3 The Duty to Spy 3.4 The Problem of Uncertainty 3.5 Between Allies—‘A Waste of Energy’? 3.6 Conclusion 4: Economic Espionage 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Economic Secrets 4.3 Justifying Economic Espionage 4.4 Objections 4.4.1 The Distributive Objection 4.4.2 The Motivations Objection 4.4.3 The Separate Spheres Objection 4.4.4 The ‘Not Between Allies’ Objection 4.5 Conclusion 5: Deception 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Concealing, Misleading, Lying, and Fabricating Evidence 5.3 Permissible Deception 5.3.1 Kant Revisited 5.3.2 Deception in Espionage and Counter-Intelligence: A First Cut 5.3.3 Deception in the Service of Unjust Ends 5.4 Mandatory Deception 5.5 Some Objections 5.6 Dilemmas of Deception 5.7 Conclusion 6: Treason 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Understanding Treason 6.2.1 Treason, Nationality, and Membership 6.2.2 The Presumptive Wrongfulness of Treason 6.3 Permissible Treason 6.4 Mandatory Treason 6.5 Treason and Unjust Ends 6.6 Treason, Alliances, and Shared Goals 6.7 Treason and Personal Betrayal 6.8 Conclusion 7: Recruitment 7.1 Introduction 7.2 Some Cases 7.3 The Problem of Motives 7.3.1 Motives and the Moral Status of Recruitment 7.3.2 Right and Wrong Motives 7.3.3 Benefiting from Wrong Motives 7.4 The Problem of Manipulation 7.4.1 Manipulation 7.4.2 Non-deceptive Manipulation 7.4.3 Deceptive Manipulation 7.5 The Problem of Exploitation 7.5.1 Exploitation 7.5.2 Exploiting the Innocent 7.5.3 Exploiting the Guilty 7.6 The Problem of Coercion 7.6.1 Coercion 7.6.2 Threats of Punishment 7.6.3 Informational Blackmail 7.6.4 Entrapment 7.7 Conclusion 8: Technology 8.1 Introduction 8.2 Mapping the Terrain 8.3 Of Machines and Humans 8.3.1 Eyes and Ears vs Lenses and Bugs 8.3.2 State Officials, Diplomats, Spies, and Company Executives 8.4 Cyber-intelligence 8.4.1 Cyber-espionage 8.4.2 Cyber-counter-intelligence 8.5 Conclusion 9: Mass surveillance 9.1 Introduction 9.2 A Putative Defence of Mass Surveillance 9.3 The Privacy Objection 9.3.1 Defining Privacy 9.3.2 The Objection 9.3.3 Unintended Effects and Intentional Disclosure The Argument from Unintended Effects The argument from intentional disclosure 9.3.4 Privacy and the Duty to Protect 9.4 The Fairness Objection 9.4.1 Algorithmic Unfairness 9.4.2 Profiling 9.5 Conclusion Epilogue Bibliography Index "Cécile Fabre draws back the curtain on the ethics of espionage and counterintelligence. In a book rich with historical examples she argues that spying is only justified to protect against ongoing violations of fundamental rights. Blackmail, bribery, mass surveillance, cyberespionage, treason, and other nefarious activities are considered."--Publisher description