Principled Spying: The Ethics of Secret Intelligence

OMAND, David and PHYTHIAN, Mark

ISBN 10: 1626165602 / ISBN 13: 9781626165601

Published by Georgetown, Washington, 2018

About this Item

x + 286 pages, 8vo, blue boards, d.w. Washington: Georgetown University Press, (2018). A fine copy in a near fine dust wrapper.

Seller Inventory # 299189

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Principled Spying: The Ethics of Secret Intelligence
• Publisher: Georgetown, Washington
• Publication Date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1626165602
• ISBN 13: 9781626165601
• Binding: hardcover
• Condition: fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: near fine
• Seller catalogs:
  • ETHIC
  • ESPIONAGE
  • SPY

About this title

Synopsis

Intelligence agencies provide critical information to national security and foreign policy decision makers, but spying also poses inherent dilemmas for liberty, privacy, human rights, and diplomacy. Principled Spying explores how to strike a balance between necessary intelligence activities and protecting democratic values by developing a new framework of ethics.

David Omand and Mark Phythian structure this book as an engaging debate between a former national security practitioner and an intelligence scholar. Rather than simply presenting their positions, throughout the book they pose key questions to each other and to the reader and offer contrasting perspectives to stimulate further discussion. They demonstrate the value for both practitioners and the public of weighing the dilemmas of secret intelligence through ethics. The chapters in the book cover key areas including human intelligence, surveillance, acting on intelligence, and oversight and accountability. The authors disagree on some key questions, but in the course of their debate they demonstrate that it is possible to find a balance between liberty and security. This book is accessible reading for concerned citizens, but it also delivers the sophisticated insights of a high-ranking former practitioner and a distinguished scholar.

About the Author

Sir David Omand, GCB, was previously UK security and intelligence coordinator, permanent secretary of the UK Home Office, and director of GCHQ, the UK signals intelligence and cyber security agency. He is the author of Securing the State.

Mark Phythian is professor of politics in the School of History, Politics and International Relations at the University of Leicester and coeditor of the journal Intelligence and National Security. He is coauthor of Intelligence in an Insecure World and has nearly a dozen other books to his name.