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Secrecy games, power, and resistance in global politics
,
Clare Stevens,
Amaha Senu
Review of International Studies, Pages: 1 - 18
Swansea University Author:
Amaha Senu
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© The Author(s), 2024. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence.
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DOI (Published version): 10.1017/s0260210524000275
Abstract
In contrast to a view of secrecy as a tool of statecraft, where the game of ‘covering/uncovering’ dominates as the central way of interpretating secrecy’s power, we set out ‘secrecy games’ as an approach for understanding secrecy’s power and influence. To do so, we offer a set of three games to illu...
| Published in: | Review of International Studies |
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| ISSN: | 0260-2105 1469-9044 |
| Published: |
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
2024
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| Online Access: |
Check full text
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| URI: | https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa65868 |
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| Abstract: |
In contrast to a view of secrecy as a tool of statecraft, where the game of ‘covering/uncovering’ dominates as the central way of interpretating secrecy’s power, we set out ‘secrecy games’ as an approach for understanding secrecy’s power and influence. To do so, we offer a set of three games to illustrate the more varied ways that secrecy operates, and draw attention to the ways in which non-state actors use secrecy and shape its effects. In particular, we offer an analysis of: 1) the secrecy games of tunnelling in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the role of mobility as part of secrecy; 2) the secrecy game of camouflage and how stowaways blend in to facilitate access to global shipping routes; and 3) the secrecy game of maze-running and maze-making within urban warfare. Drawing these together, we show how secrecy involves a wider set of actors, practices, and associated knowledge-(un)making strategies than currently understood within International Relations. In turn, this expanded understanding of secrecy helps to make sense of the more complex ways in which secrecy is presented, used, resisted, and transformed – including and especially as a force that limits sovereign power – and, therefore, as central to what shapes global politics. |
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| Keywords: |
Politics of knowledge; resistance; secrecy; secrecy games; security |
| College: |
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Start Page: |
1 |
| End Page: |
18 |