The Ethics of Economic Espionage
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12160366 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ross W Bellaby (0000-0002-6975-0681, University of Sheffield, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 37 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 116-133 |
| Publication date | 2023-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Ethics & International Affairs (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0892-6794 • E-ISSN: 1747-7093 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0892679423000138 |
| OpenAlex | W4386261564 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 11 |
The ethical value of intelligence lies in its crucial role in safeguarding individuals from harm by detecting, locating, and preventing threats. As part of this undertaking, intelligence can include protecting the economic well-being of the political community and its people. Intelligence, however, also entails causing people harm when it violates their vital interests through its operations. The challenge, therefore, is how to reconcile this tension, which Cécile Fabre's recent book Spying through a Glass Darkly does by arguing for the “ongoing and preemptive imposition of defensive harm.” Fabre applies this underlying argument to the specifics of economic espionage to argue that while states, businesses, and individuals do have a general right over their information that prevents others from accessing it, such protections can be forfeited or overridden when there is a potential threat to the fundamental rights of third parties. This essay argues, however, that Fabre's discussion on economic espionage overlooks important additional proportionality and discrimination concerns that need to be accounted for. In addition to the privacy violations it causes, economic espionage can cause harms to people's other vital interests, including their physical and mental well-being and autonomy. Given the complex way in which the economy interlinks with people's lives and society, harms to one economic actor will have repercussions on those secondary economic entities dependent on them, such as workers, buyers, and investors. This, in turn, can produce further harms on other economic actors, causing damages to ripple outward across society
Damages · Espionage · Harm · Industrial espionage · Law and economics · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Safeguarding · Sociology · Value (mathematics · Crime, Illicit Activities, and Governance · Law
Just and Unjust Wars
Fuel poverty and human health
What (or who) causes health inequalities
Ethics and Intelligence
Just War, Just Intelligence
Spying Through a Glass Darkly
The Relationship between Energy Poverty and Individual Development
Just Surveillance? Towards a Normative Theory of Surveillance
The Ethics of Economic Sanctions
A Peaceful, Silent, Deadly Remedy
Moving Towards a Capability for Meaningful Labor
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |