Covert Action: National Approaches to Unacknowledged Intervention

by Magda Long, Rory Cormac, Gene Lester, Mark Stout, Damien Van Puyvelde

Overview

"Covert action" is generally understood as politically motivated and plausibly deniable interference by one state in the affairs of another state. It includes propaganda, political or economic subversion, paramilitary action, and assassinations. Covert action is the most consequential and controversial form of secret statecraft, and it has become a ubiquitous feature of international politics. However, it is often sensationalized or seen through a narrow, US-centric lens.

Covert Action challenges this conventional narrative and redefines secret statecraft by offering a groundbreaking comparative international perspective that explores the practice of unacknowledged intervention across twenty countries and a range of eras. Bringing together leading scholars from around the world, this volume moves beyond the American, and wider, anglosphere perspectives to examine covert action practices across states, regime types, and time.

This book will be important listening for historians, political scientists, and policymakers, and it provides a foundational study of the hidden mechanisms of international power. It takes a global perspective and thus transforms the understanding of how nations truly interact behind the scenes, revealing covert action as a complex form of international statecraft.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798228682566
Publisher:	Tantor
Publication date:	11/03/2025
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 5.70(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Magda Long received her doctorate from King's College London and is a research fellow at several academic institutions in the United Kingdom and the United States.

Rory Cormac is a professor of international relations at the University of Nottingham.

Genevieve Lester is the lead for intelligence on the Afghanistan War Commission and an associate fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Mark Stout, now retired, is the former director of the Master's in Global Security Studies Program at Johns Hopkins University and a former intelligence officer.

Damien Van Puyvelde is an associate professor and chairs the Intelligence and Security Research Group of the Institute of Security and Global Affairs at Leiden University.

Bob Souer is a full-time professional storyteller and narrator. He has narrated numerous audiobooks, as well as broadcast and nonbroadcast projects for corporations and ministries across North America. You've heard Bob's voice on CBS, PBS, the History Channel, the Military Channel, Audible.com, iTunes, and many other networks and sites. Bob is married to Cinda. They have four children and live in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

What People are Saying About This

Michael Poznansky

This ambitious volume takes readers on a journey across the globe to better understand how different countries approach covert action. With nearly two dozen individual case studies, Covert Action uncovers how a country's unique history, ambitions, and global interests combine to shape how its political and military leaders practice secret statecraft. This is the most comprehensive study of covert action in a comparative context out there.

Diana Bolsinger

The field of intelligence studies needs a book with this breadth and insight and I'm so glad that it's here. This comprehensive survey of covert action around the world ranges from Ancient Greece and the Barbary Coast to today's headlines. Covert Action is an enthralling read that opens a new and previously unexplored dimension to the world of espionage.

Richard J. Aldrich

Timely and important, this is a book every policymaker needs to read. It shows how states have turned to covert action to exploit strategic ambiguity, testing for weakness all around the world. This brilliant collection is the first to examine the global shadow war.