Covert Action

National Approaches to Unacknowledged Intervention

By: Magda Long (Editor), Rory Cormac (Editor), Genevieve Lester (Editor), Mark Stout (Editor), Damien Van Puyvelde (Editor)

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Paperback | 3 November 2025

At a Glance

Paperback
408 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
17.5 x 25.4 x 2.6

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A comparative international perspective challenges conventional narratives about unacknowledged intervention

"Covert action" is generally understood as politically motivated and plausibly deniable interference by one state in the affairs of another state. It includes propaganda, political or economic subversion, paramilitary action, and assassinations. Covert action is the most consequential and controversial form of secret statecraft, and it has become a ubiquitous feature of international politics. However, it is often sensationalized or seen through a narrow, US-centric lens.

Covert Action challenges this conventional narrative and redefines secret statecraft by offering a groundbreaking comparative international perspective that explores the practice of unacknowledged intervention across twenty countries and a range of eras. Bringing together leading scholars from around the world, this volume moves beyond the American, and wider, anglosphere perspectives to examine covert action practices across states, regime types, and time.

This book will be important reading for historians, political scientists, and policymakers, and it provides a foundational study of the hidden mechanisms of international power. It takes a global perspective and thus transforms the understanding of how nations truly interact behind the scenes, revealing covert action as a complex form of international statecraft.

Industry Reviews

"Timely and important, this is a book every policymaker needs to read. It shows how states have turned to covert action to exploit strategic ambiguity, testing for weakness all around the world. This brilliant collection is the first to examine the global shadow war."—Richard J. Aldrich, professor, University of Warwick, author of GCHQ: The Uncensored Story of Britains Most Secret Intelligence Agency

"This ambitious volume takes readers on a journey across the globe to better understand how different countries approach covert action. With nearly two dozen individual case studies, Covert Action uncovers how a countrys unique history, ambitions, and global interests combine to shape how its political and military leaders practice secret statecraft. This is the most comprehensive study of covert action in a comparative context out there."—Michael Poznansky, associate professor, Strategic and Operational Research Department, U.S. Naval War College and a core faculty member in the Cyber & Innovation Policy Institute

"The field of intelligence studies needs a book with this breadth and insight and Im so glad that its here. This comprehensive survey of covert action around the world ranges from Ancient Greece and the Barbary Coast to todays headlines. Covert Action is an enthralling read that opens a new and previously unexplored dimension to the world of espionage."—Diana Bolsinger, assistant professor, Department of Criminal Justice and Security Studies, The University of Texas at El Paso

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