Journal of International Studies

Considerable media coverage around the globe has been devoted to the on-going saga of the National Security Agency leaks emerging from the computer and files obtained by contractor and ex-Central Intelligence Agency employee Edward Snowden.  The stories and the revelations themselves have sparked considerable political and public discussion over the limits on privacy and the intervention of the state into the lives of ordinary citizens. Some of this has concentrated on the implications of intrusive surveillance through technological collection on personal privacy. Hollywood movies such as  Enemy of the State  and  Minority Report  suddenly seem less works of futuristic fiction and more like contemporary documentaries. And yet this emphasis is problematic in two important respects. First, it suggests that everyone is equally under threat from surveillance. More significantly, the focus ignores the continuing involvement of old fashioned human beings as key ins...

The best warfare strategy is to attack the enemy's plans, next is to attack alliances.  -  Sun Tzu , The Art of War A growing chorus of nations is decrying Washington's unrestrained cyber espionage. However, there is only one country with both the means and motivation for using mounting international resentment to challenge American hegemony. The NSA surveillance of America's allies has opened up two vital fronts in which China can erode American global dominance.  Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying has claimed the rhetorical high ground, calling cyber security "a matter of sovereignty". She said Beijing is eager to address the issue through the framework of the United Nations, and to do so "China and Russia have submitted a draft plan, in an effort to help the world jointly tackle the problem." [1]  This joint Sino-Russian proposal to combat the NSA's electronic surveillance coincides with a parallel initiative la...

A series of events in recent weeks has created a widespread narrative that the U.S. is an unreliable ally and a weak partner. First, the U.S. government shutdown forced President Barack Obama  to cancel his trip  to a couple of Asia summits. Then, new Edward Snowden leaks revealed that the National Security Agency has been spying on up to 35 world leaders,  including top U.S. allies  like German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Both events take place against a backdrop of concerns about U.S. credibility from top Middle East allies, most notably Israel and Saudi Arabia. Both countries are fearful that Washington  will cut a deal with Iran  over its nuclear program, and have taken exception to the  Obama administration backing down  on its various threats against the Assad regime in Syria. Taken together, the general sentiment was summarized succinctly by former Vice President Dick Cheney, when  he observed that  “our friends no longer c...

The controversy over the U.S. National Security Agency’s global espionage operations appears to be spreading to Asia, where it is already sparking outrage among some of America’s allies and partner states. Readers will recall that the NSA story began in Asia  when former NSA contractor Edward Snowden  first fled to Hong Kong immediately before news organizations began publishing stories about the documents he leaked. During Snowden’s  brief stay  in Hong Kong,  some stories came to light  about U.S. spying operations in Hong Kong and the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Although these attracted a lot of attention in China, they failed to garner much interest elsewhere amid Snowden’s leaks about the NSA’s domestic spying operations and his dramatic stay in Moscow's airport. Ultimately, no one was particularly surprised to learn the U.S. was spying on China. Since that time, Asia has remained largely on the periphery of the NSA c...