Journal Article - Review of International Affairs

What Constitutes Successful Covert Action? Evaluating Unacknowledged Interventionism in Foreign Affairs

| 2021

Abstract

Covert action has long been a controversial tool of international relations. However, there is remarkably little public understanding about whether it works and, more fundamentally, about what constitutes success in this shadowy arena of state activity. This article distills competing criteria of success and examines how covert actions become perceived as successes. We develop a conceptual model of covert action success as a social construct and illustrate it through the case of 'the golden age of CIA operations.' The socially constructed nature of success has important implications not just for evaluating covert actions but also for using, and defending against, them.

  – Via Review of International Studies.

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For Academic Citation:

Cormac, Rory, Calder Walton and Damien Van Puyvelde. "What Constitutes Successful Covert Action? Evaluating Unacknowledged Interventionism in Foreign Affairs." Review of International Affairs, (2021): 1–18.

The Authors