A World Without Secrets: International Politics in an Era of Eroding Secrecy

The Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs program on Security and Global Affairs presents “A World Without Secrets: International Politics in an Era of Eroding Secracy” with Erik Lin-Greenberg.

Intelligence-democratizing technologies, such as commercial satellites, smart devices, and GPS tracking, have dramatically expanded access to information once almost exclusively available to powerful states. Weaker states, terrorist organizations, journalists, and even amateur analysts now use these tools to reveal and verify information that was previously hidden from public view, eroding secrecy in ways that can lead states to adapt their behavior. This increased transparency raises three central questions: What role do these technologies play in the international security domain? How do states navigate a world in which secrecy is harder to maintain? And, how do different types of actors benefit from increased transparency? A World Without Secrets outlines the landscape of technology-enabled transparency—describing the tools that pull back the veil of secrecy, identifying the actors able to use them, and explaining transparency’s growing role in diplomacy, military affairs, and the domestic politics of foreign policymaking. The project then introduces a typology of strategies actors use to navigate transparency, arguing that strategy choice is shaped by transparency’s desirability in a given context and an actor’s capabilities. Although these technologies provide weaker actors newfound capabilities, they are not inherently “weapons of the weak.” Drawing evidence from the Russia-Ukraine War, U.S.-China relations, and Middle East crises we show that more powerful actors can often mitigate or amplify the effects of transparency. As a result, transparency’s overall impact on international politics may be more limited than commonly claimed. 

Organized by Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs Faculty Fellow and Assistant Professor of Political Science Caileigh Glenn.

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