International Security and Peace Covert Wars Prof. Jaechun Kim

COVERT WAR  Definition of Covert Action and Covert War  What is “covert”?  An attempt by a government to influence events in another state or territory without revealing its own involvement.  Maintenance of “plausible deniability” is very important!  Covert War  Covert Action at the highest level  Covert Wars aim at certain political objectives…

 Political objective of CW  change the regime by secretly promoting military coup, economic destabilization program (sabotage), or by sending secret paramilitary force (or special forces and human spies)…  Americans have the most effective CA capacity (after WWII)  Less expensive than open military action, but..  Brits… Soviets…  Studying CA (and any other intelligence activities) is not easy… cf. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in the US cf. Compartmentalization

 US intelligence community  The US Intelligence Community is a group of 16 (or more) government agencies and organizations  INDEPENDENT AGENCY Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) headed by DCI Office of DNI (Director of National Intelligence)  DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE ELEMENTS Defense Intelligence Agency National Security Agency (NSA) National Imagery & Mapping Agency  National Geospatial Intelligence Agency National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) Air Force Intelligence Army Intelligence Marine Corps Intelligence Navy Intelligence

 DEPARTMENTAL INTELLIGENCE ELEMENTS (non-DoD)  Department of State  Department of Energy  Department of the Treasury  Department of Justice  Department of Homeland Security more about US intelligence community!  Head of American IC – used to be the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI)  now Director of National Intelligence (DNI), first DNI being John Negroponte  Mike McConnell  …  James Clapper  US spend about (allegedly) 40 billion dollars a year for intelligence activities

 History of the US Intelligence System Shock of Pearl Harbor – Creation of OSS (Office of Strategic Services) in 1942  CIA in 1947 (National Security Act 1947)  National Intelligence Reform Act of 2004  creation of Office of DNI  Types of US intelligence activities  Techint (Sigint, Photint, Imint, etc.)  Humint – human spy (CIA, in charge)  Covert Action – a type of humint…

 Types of Covert Action 1. Political Action  Influence foreign events using political means  creation and manipulation of political parties and organizations; disruption of democratic electoral processes. 2. Propaganda  Use words or symbols to influence the minds of foreign people; media operation

3. Paramilitary activity  Use of force; Help to create opposition military forces by financial aid, military equipments, military specialists e.g.) Contra War in Nicaragua…  The importance of Intelligence to US Foreign Policy US intelligence had been a major arm of the US foreign policy during the Cold War

 Cold War was fought in three areas: 1. Strategic Nuclear Arms Race - the most stable area of Cold War competition… 2. Competition in Europe and other developed nations - stable ; too high a stake… 3. Competition in the 3 rd world – the most unstable ; where the major battles of the Cold War were fought.

 Covert wars in the peripheral areas…  Developing countries during the Cold War and American foreign policy to these countries -The dominant theme in the developing countries - national self-determination and decolonization movements  Appeal of Leninism and Marxism. Why? Because decolonization movements come with land reforms, redistribution of wealth, nationalization of foreign owned industry, and regulate business to protect have-nots..  US security interest in the peripheral areas…

 Successful cases of US covert war in the developing countries during the Cold War 1953 – Iran (Mossadeq  Shah) 1954 – Guatemala (Arbenz) North Vietnam Laos Congo (Lumumba  Mobutu) Dominican Republic (Bosch) 1964 – Brazil (Goulart) 1965 – Indonesia (Sukarno  Suharto) Cambodia 1973 – Chile (Allende  Pinochet) Australia 1979 – Nicaragua (Sandinistas)

 Reasons for Secrecy: Why did the US engage in covert action as opposed to openly aggressive military intervention?  Was American covert intervention in the developing countries successful in C’s sense?

 Simmons (former CIA officer)  “ Defenders of covert action would say we are fighting to preserve liberty and democracy and the American way... But when you get into the details, you wonder if they are talking about the same thing...  He may be an SOB and a dictator, but he is our SOB whereas Arbenz, who was democratically elected, was not an SOB, but he wasn’t ours.”  Problem of Covert Action in Liberal Democracy. Do you think Covert Action can be legitimate FP tool of democratic countries? When?

 General Jimmy Doolittle in 1954: “ It is now clear that we are facing an implacable enemy whose avowed objective is world domination by whatever means and at whatever cost. There are no rules in such a game. Hitherto acceptable norms of human conduct do not apply. If the United State is to survive, long standing American concepts of “fair play” must be reconsidered. We must develop effective espionage and counterespionage services and must learn to subvert, sabotage and destroy enemies by more clever, more sophisticated means than those used against us. It may become necessary that the American people be made acquainted with, understand and support this fundamentally repugnant philosophy.”