ABSTRACT
Media investigations of the secret diplomacy of the United States extraordinary rendition programme, the release of various unclassified diplomatic cables by WikiLeaks or Edward Snowden's revelations about the US global surveillance network have forcefully restated the case in the public arena. Secret diplomacy is characterised by 'the total isolation and exclusion of the media and the public from negotiations and related policy-making'. Qatar has helped establish a secret channel of communication between the United States and Taliban representatives, which allows the two parties to discuss preliminary trust-building measures in anticipation of more comprehensive talks about how to end the war in Afghanistan. The question of the ethics of secret diplomacy is not, of course, a matter only of historical interest. Drawing on the work of John Dewey, Putnam refuses to endorse the idea the main function of ethics is to arrive at 'universal principles' of human conduct.
