Secrecy and Subjectivity
Double Agents and the Dark Underside of the International System
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2236608 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Tom Lundborg (0000-0001-6496-3875, Swedish Defence University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 15 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 443-459 |
| Publication date | 2021-11-09 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Political Sociology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1749-5679 • E-ISSN: 1749-5687 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/ips/olab014 |
| OpenAlex | W3168718815 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 21 |
Drawing on a wide range of material, from memoirs of former spy masters to the highly acclaimed TV series Le Bureau des Légendes, this article shows how documentary as well as fictional accounts of double agents cast light on a 'dark underside' of the international system. This dark underside is made up of exceptional spaces of secrecy in which intelligence organizations and spies operate. The article's main point of entry when analyzing these spaces is the intimate connection between secrecy and subjectivity. While secrecy as a social practice has received increased attention in sociological accounts of secret intelligence, the constitutive role of secrecy in relation to subjectivity is a much less explored theme. This theme, it is argued, becomes especially valuable for thinking about the conflicting lines that constitute the life and becoming of the double agent. In particular, it can be drawn on to show how this subject both is captured by the transparent norms and limits of the international state system and effectively transgresses those limits. In this way, rather than upholding a dichotomy of secrecy and transparency as two separable sides of the international system, the double agent emerges as a disruptive figure calling for its deconstruction
Aesthetics · Deconstruction (building) · Epistemology · Memoir · Political science · Relation (database) · Secrecy · Sociology · Subjectivity · Theme (computing) · Transparency (behavior) · Computer Science · Engineering · Global Security and Public Health · Intelligence, Security, War Strategy · Law · Philosophy · Political Theology and Sovereignty
Sovereignty and Subjectivity
Political Theology
Secrecy's subjects
Everyday secrecy
War, transparency and control
Political Sociology and the Problem of the International
The Hidden Hand
Anglo-European intelligence cooperation
Secrecy
How to Read Paddington Bear
Collective Discussion
The crisis of parliamentary democracy
A thousand plateaus
Criminal Secrecy
The Gift of Death, Second Edition & Literature in Secret
Introduction to 'Secrecy and Transparency
Logics of Political Secrecy
The Sociology of Secrecy and of Secret Societies
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,5 |
| Citation span | 2024 - 2025 (2) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |