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The Big Question: What should governments keep secret? George O. Liber, Dieter Dettke, Frank Vogl, Maximilian C. Forte, Rick Falkvinge, Nada Alwadi, Chong Ja Ian and Adil Najam World Policy Journal 2013 30: 3 DOI: 10.1177/0740277513506373

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What is This?

Downloaded from wpj.sagepub.com at COLUMBIA UNIV on December 2, 2014 THE BIG QUESTION

THE BIG QUESTION Secrecy What should governments keep secret?

FEATURING ith secrecy a daily preoccu- George o. Liber pation of governments who Dieter Dettke Wroutinely weigh security Frank Vogl concerns over disclosure of covert opera- Maximilian C. Forte tions, the balance of these two priorities Rick Falkvinge becomes an ever more pressing national Nada Alwadi debate. We asked our panel of global ex- Chong Ja Ian perts what, if anything, they believe gov- Adil NaJam ernments should or must keep secret.

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Living In A Secret World more public information on terrorists and George O. Liber terrorist organizations might be useful in All governments engage in furtive behavior the battle for the hearts and minds. More and in the name of national security com- information on terrorists could help to mit acts they prefer to conceal. It is often delegitimize their cause. Too much work too easy to oversimplify the contrast be- on terrorism by too many people is being tween the “righteousness of openness” and done on the basis of secrecy. The enormous the “evils of secrecy.” Not all confidential size of confidentialitymust be reduced. information held by governments needs The era of secret treaties is over. Today to see the light of day. Personnel files of there is less demand for the art of decep- government employees, tax records of its tion. In a democracy, transparency is the citizens, sensitive internal agency memo- normal, not the exception. Governments randa, measures to control crime, and those should keep secret as little as possible. to advance diplomacy and national defense Moving forward into the post-Snowden should not be available to the media or the era, broad legislation allowing governments public. The devil, however, is in the details. to collect data on their citizens without When governments develop extensive po- public knowledge and only held in check lice powers, create sophisticated surveil- by a secret court is not sustainable. The lance systems, or gain control of the mass bureaucracies of law enforcement need media, secrecy increases and accountability more precise legislation and more efficient withers away. As the experience of Russia congressional oversight. The quality of and most post-communist countries in Eur- legislation dealing with personal data asia demonstrates, limited transparency too needs to be improved. There is an urgent often nurtures moral and criminal corrup- need for more balance between the needs of tion, massive fraud, and the undermining law enforcement and individual freedom. of democratic institutions. In the realm of the military, governments need room for secrecy and confidentiality. George O. Liber, a specialist on the Soviet Union What governments legitimately need to and Modern Ukraine, is Professor of History keep secret must be checked with as much at the University of Alabama at Birmingham openness about capabilities and intentions and an International Election Observer for the as possible. Deception is only useful for Organization for Security and Coooperation in the purpose of waging war. To avoid war, Europe (OSCE). openness is an advantage.

As Little As Possible Dieter Dettke is a foreign and security policy Dieter Dettke specialist and an adjunct professor at George- Total openness and transparency is not town University. possible. Governments need confidential- ity for consultations during negotiations Government Accountability on treaties, agreements, and joint actions. Frank Vogl In the fight against international terror- In remote, poor villages across India, citi- ism, certain data and information with re- zens are learning how to use the Right to gard to ongoing operations must remain Information Act to hold local government secret. A legitimate question is whether officials accountable. As a result, tens of

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thousands of very poor people are secur- Secret From Whom? ing healthcare and other social benefits to Maximilian C. Forte which they are entitled, but which corrupt Not all governments are alike. There are officials have long denied them. not just differences in ideology, but also Indeed, access to information is crucial in the varying capacities of states which to curbing every facet of corruption. Some governments rule. Moreover, each is dif- years ago, then UK Prime Minister Tony ferently situated in terms of power in a Blair halted a UK Serious Fraud Squad in- global context. Strategies and objectives vestigation into alleged foreign bribery by vis-à-vis citizens and other nation-states British Aerospace, Europe’s largest arms thus vary widely. So-called weaker states manufacturer, on the grounds of national of the “periphery,” formerly colonized security. The Organization for Economic nations, especially those which are the Cooperation and Development challenged targets of covert war, economic destabi- Blair’s decision, arguing it violated the lization, and political inference both by OECD Anti-Bribery Convention. Eventu- more powerful states and by multilateral ally, the United Kingdom legislated a new financial institutions, have historically tough anti-bribery law, and British Aero- been the ones with the most to lose from space was prosecuted. “openness” (whether voluntary, or as in Too many governments claim a right most cases, coerced). to maintain information secrecy on the The question of what governments grounds of national security. This enables should keep secret also implies a second them to abstain from publishing their de- question: secret from whom? Here ques- fense/military budgets and procurement in tions of legitimacy arise, and legitimacy the defense sector. Needless to say, corrup- is differently grounded and constituted tion is often rampant in the defense sector across diverse societies. It is already un- in such countries. When national security derstood that all governments attempt to is deployed to assert secrecy, it needs to be restrict access to some information so it tightly defined, and the public needs to be can be circulated among limited numbers effectively assured there are vigilant mecha- of appointed agents and specialists. Se- nisms in place to guard against abuse. It is crecy is not so much about the “unknow- vital that those in government who are able able,” as it is about who gets to “tell” to to operate in secrecy do not have the ability whom, and when. Secrecy is embedded in to transform their operations into islands of relations of trust and notions of responsi- corruption. The public has a right to know bility, but it can also impede accountabil- what areas of governmental activity its gov- ity. Power is also the basis of secrecy, and ernment wishes to keep secret, what the jus- sometimes secrecy is pursued for the sake tifications are, and what respective indepen- of it— to entrench or advance that power. dent review systems are in place to serve the Secrecy is thus more about the power to public interest. set the rules governing knowledge acqui- sition than it is about the empirical con- Frank Vogl is the author of Waging War on tent of the knowledge itself. Therefore, Corruption—Inside the Movement Fight- a catalogue of essentially secret informa- ing the Abuse of Power and co-founder of tion is not a productive avenue of inquiry Transparency International. either: the answer will not only be highly

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variable given the diverse power and poli- positive change, I would argue. The next cies of states worldwide, but it will also generation is going to demand that kind be very contingent and in constant flux. of accountability in the long term. De- mocracy, after all, depends on the elector- Maximilian C. Forte is an associate professor in ate’s ability to critically evaluate the per- the Department of Sociology and Anthropology formance of its elected leaders. at Concordia University in Montreal. Rick Falkvinge is the founder and first party Infrastructure War leader of the Swedish Pirate Party. Rick Falkvinge There is an infrastructure war going on Baring Secrets at the moment. Who gets to control the Nada Alwadi world’s information? Governments and For an investigative journalist in the corporations are fighting to get control Arab world, government secrecy has al- over it, and to deny citizens both insight ways been a problem. Ideally, govern- and control of the same. This is alarm- ments should keep secrets to a bare mini- ing. All societies in history with trans- mum. In an ideal world, governments parent citizens and a closed-door govern- should be completely transparent. But ment have been low-happiness societies. we don’t live in an ideal world. So I un- We need the concept of privacy for the derstand when governments keep secrets citizenry and the concept of accountabil- in the name of “national security.” But ity for government. Governments most even when the government is using this definitely do not have any right to know reason legitimately, it should be used everything about their citizens. They do minimally. National security should be not have the right to hold the electorate invoked only when the public is actually accountable for its opinions and votes. in danger, when the government or state Longer-term, we are slowly adopting is in conflict. It should not be used sim- a different perspective on public servants, ply to preserve the reputation of the gov- and should ask ourselves why they are al- ernment. The term national security has lowed to keep secrets directly related to been misused a lot in many countries by their jobs from their employers at all. many governments simply to hide infor- That’s not something any other employee mation from the public. would be allowed to do. He or she would Though perhaps a legitimate excuse be fired on the spot. However, this does in some ways, national security has lost require a bit of change in perspective. its meaning because it’s been misused in We’re still in the mindset of electing many countries. We need to find a new kings and queens to rule over us, rather definition and identify when governments than the mindset of conducting an inter- can keep information legitimately. This view to hire a public servant in our role of decision will be based on the situation in employer. Such a change would require a any government, especially how demo- shift in doctrine in how several branches cratic the government is. Transparency of government work. It would be impos- laws should be guaranteed and enforced, sible to collect governmental databases of even by the United Nations. There should private, sensitive information at all—a be a mechanism to push governments

6 WORLD POLICY JOURNAL Downloaded from wpj.sagepub.com at COLUMBIA UNIV on December 2, 2014 SECRECY who don’t have transparency to enforce behind Beijing’s toughening position on these kinds of laws, to allow the public to maritime disputes, fueling regional ap- know what is going on. As a journalist, I prehensions. Chinese officials admit not feel strongly that citizens and the public knowing the full extent of local gov- should be able to pursue their right-to- ernment indebtedness, raising concerns know information. For journalists to in- about China’s economy. The fact that vestigate a story, they need access to this member governments appear less forth- information, the government should grant coming about ASEAN activities encour- that. But especially in the Arab world, ages skepticism about the organization’s governments act in complete secrecy. This ability to deal with regional issues from opens the gates for corruption. maritime disputes to human trafficking. Too much government secrecy can Nada Alwadi is a Bahraini journalist, co- hinder cooperation in a world where in- founder of the Bahraini Press Association, formation of varying levels of quality is and recipient of the Award for Nonviolent increasingly abundant. Persistent official Achievement by the International Center on reticence promotes a distrust of govern- Nonviolent Conflict. ments worldwide. Citizens, businesses, and other governments may fear the worst Challenging Secrecy under such conditions. Governments do Chong Ja Ian need confidentiality to function, yet need The increasing public demand for infor- to develop procedures for responding ef- mation is challenging long-held govern- fectively to shifting demands of openness ment insistence on secrecy throughout and secrecy. Developments in this direc- East and Southeast Asia. This applies tion benefit citizens, businesses, gover- as much to societies with open political nance, and foreign policy. This is an area systems, like Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, where Asian governments can do more. as those with more government control, such as China and Vietnam. Citizens are Chong Ja Ian is an assistant professor of Po- demanding access to official information litical Science at the National University of on everything from environmental im- Singapore. His new book, Imposing States, pact assessments to development zoning examines the influence of rivalries and security and food safety. concerns on formation of governments. In Singapore, perceived lack of trans- parency over population policy brought Ideally Nothing thousands out in an unprecedented pro- Adil Najam test in early 2013. Similarly, a desire for What should governments keep secret? openness in the treatment of military Ideally, nothing. They should not, and personnel and the military justice system they cannot. Secrecy is a close cousin of prompted approximately 250,000 people prohibition. At the heart of both lie the to demonstrate before Taiwan’s presiden- cancer of societal distrust. Some truths tial office in August 2013. may be difficult to handle. But the path The opacity of the Chinese politi- of secrecy can be even more treacherous. cal system makes it difficult for China’s A state that does not trust its citizens will neighbors to understand the motivation produce citizens who do not trust their

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state. The result is a vicious downward instructive. Recently, the government spiral. The state invents more reasons to tried to block reports of the investigation withhold secrets. Citizens feed on their into the Abbottabad operation at Osama own doubts, including those that may Bin Laden’s compound. The government not be so secret. In short, secretive states has also banned YouTube. Neither has breed untrusting citizens, and untrust- worked. Locating the investigative ing citizens spawn conspiracy societies. report on Abbottabad on the Internet in My own country, Pakistan, is one such Pakistan is as easy as accessing YouTube. untrusting society, made all the more Keeping some secrets may indeed untrusting by a culture of secrets. Con- be inevitable. But let them be so few, spiracy is now a staple of our diets. so infrequent, so vital, and so unusual Second, technology has not only that triggering secrecy requires not increased our ability to uncover the secrets a public list or standard procedures, of others, it has also decreased our ability but deliberation, and maybe even to hold onto our own. Ironically, the net introspection, at the highest levels. When result is the desire to create more secrets, in doubt, governments should err on the not fewer. The parallel between state side of openness. secrets and state bans is, again, relevant. The goal in both cases is to regulate Adil Najam, Professor of International Rela- the information with which society can tions at Boston University, was Vice Chancel- be trusted. In both cases, regulation lor of Lahore University of Management Sci- is destined to fail. Again, Pakistan is ences (LUMS).

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Compiled by Johana Bhuiyan and vaughn watson

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