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Secrecy and Subjectivity: Double Agents and the Dark Underside of the International System
Swedish Defence University, Department of Security, Strategy and Leadership (ISSL), Political Science Section, Sektionen för säkerhetespolitik och strategi.
2021 (English)In: International Political Sociology, ISSN 1749-5679, E-ISSN 1749-5687, Vol. 15, no 4, p. 443-459Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Drawing on a wide range of material, from memoirs of former spy masters to the highly acclaimed TV series Le Bureau des Légendes, this article shows how documentary as well as fictional accounts of double agents cast light on a “dark underside” of the international system. This dark underside is made up of exceptional spaces of secrecy in which intelligence organizations and spies operate. The article's main point of entry when analyzing these spaces is the intimate connection between secrecy and subjectivity. While secrecy as a social practice has received increased attention in sociological accounts of secret intelligence, the constitutive role of secrecy in relation to subjectivity is a much less explored theme. This theme, it is argued, becomes especially valuable for thinking about the conflicting lines that constitute the life and becoming of the double agent. In particular, it can be drawn on to show how this subject both is captured by the transparent norms and limits of the international state system and effectively transgresses those limits. In this way, rather than upholding a dichotomy of secrecy and transparency as two separable sides of the international system, the double agent emerges as a disruptive figure calling for its deconstruction.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2021. Vol. 15, no 4, p. 443-459
National Category
Political Science
Research subject
Statsvetenskap med inriktning mot strategi och säkerhetspolitik
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:fhs:diva-10273DOI: 10.1093/ips/olab014OAI: oai:DiVA.org:fhs-10273DiVA, id: diva2:1589756
Available from: 2021-08-31 Created: 2021-08-31 Last updated: 2021-11-23Bibliographically approved

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Lundborg, Tom

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CiteExportLink to record
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Citation style
  • apa
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More styles
Language
  • de-DE
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More languages
Output format
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