A comparative international perspective challenges conventional narratives about unacknowledged intervention

"Covert action" is generally understood as politically motivated and plausibly deniable interference by one state in the affairs of another state. It includes propaganda, political or economic subversion, paramilitary action, and assassinations. Covert action is the most consequential and controversial form of secret statecraft, and it has become a ubiquitous feature of international politics. However, it is often sensationalized or seen through a narrow, US-centric lens.

Covert Action challenges this conventional narrative and redefines secret statecraft by offering a groundbreaking comparative international perspective that explores the practice of unacknowledged intervention across twenty countries and a range of eras. Bringing together leading scholars from around the world, this volume moves beyond the American, and wider, anglosphere perspectives to examine covert action practices across states, regime types, and time.

This book will be important reading for historians, political scientists, and policymakers, and it provides a foundational study of the hidden mechanisms of international power. It takes a global perspective and thus transforms the understanding of how nations truly interact behind the scenes, revealing covert action as a complex form of international statecraft.

Contributions by: Rory Cormac, Damien Van Puyvelde, Jeffrey P. Rogg, Magda Long, Mark Stout, Marco Munier, William A. Stoltz, Jens Wegener, Rory Cormac, Steven Wagner, Melinda Haas, Paul M. McGarr, Damien Van Puyvelde, Philippe B. Nader, Joanisval B. Goncalves, Nihat A. Ozcan, Egemen Bezci, Kevin A. O'Brien, Folahanmi Aina, Jennifer Mathers, Kiril Avramov, Daniela Richterova, Peter Rendek, Radek Schovanek, Stephan Blancke, Sara B. Castro, Rory Cormac, Magda Long