ABSTRACT
Can the secret world of intelligence be reconciled with democratic standards? Can the forms of violence, surveillance, and disruptions inflicted by intelligence actors be kept in check? What sort of institutional designs can promote a more democratic practice of intelligence oversight? Challenging this prevailing doxa within Intelligence Studies, the contributions gathered in this book aim to shed light on these questions, adopting a critical lens to look at the workings of Western intelligence and intelligence oversight over time and space. Through chapters spanning across multiple disciplines – political sociology, history, and law –, it aims to recast intelligence oversight as acting in symbiosis with the legitimisation of the state's secret violence and the enactment of impunity for intelligence actors. It shows how intelligence actors practically navigate the legal and political constraints created by oversight frameworks and practices, looking in particular at the growing networks of interdependence that have developed transnationally. Finally, it explores inventive legal steps and human rights mechanisms aimed bridging some of the most serious gaps in existing frameworks, drawing inspiration from recent policy developments in the international struggle against torture to counter systemic abuse and impunity.
