COVERT OPERATIONS AS A FORM OF FORCE APPLICATION IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS: FOCUS ON THE SASE OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Abstract

Covert operations represent a complex and clandestine process of intervention in the realm of international politics, conducted by secret services outside of their primary activity. They represent a political option, which stands between diplomatic activities and military interventions, judged by its invasiveness level. By acting proactively, mostly in order to preserve national interests, Intelligence services often conduct covert actions even without an adequate clearance given by competent institutions (or higher authority), primarily because these operations flagrantly violate human rights and international right.

There are various models of force application in practice within the broader political framework, including international relations, whose common characteristic is that they are a means of expression of political power, which simultaneously endanger safety of another state. Forms of endangerment are usually divided based on the level of force domination, i.e. based on the criteria of the spatial source of endangerment. In case of covert operations in international relations, endangerment is almost always coming from the outside. On the other hand, force can, but not necessarily, manifest itself via the use of direct violence. For this reason, covert actions, as a subversive activity, are potentially characterized by a wide array of activity with different levels of force aplication and use of violence, depending on a given situation. Methods of activity of covert operations in international relations are most often narrowed down to involvement in redrawing the electoral will of citizens, broadcasting of directed propaganda, financing and arming “friendly” parties in a conflict, performing coups or other forms of illegal change of power, and even commiting political murders. United States of America, like any other global power, relied heavily on covert operations in the field of international relations, and authors of this paper scrutinized those actions which were unclassified as confidential, i.e. those covert actions which were publicly acknowledged as such by the American administration.

Covert actions represent a very efficient, cost-justified, and quick method of intervention in the realm of international relations, making them a highly popular choice of secret services of leading global powers. The fact remains that every use of force is a very unpopular measure, which faces public disapproval and political condemnation. Covert actions are a significantly less invasive method, compared to other forms of force application in international relations, such are military interventions of various magnitude, even though they are all equally illegitimate.