Survival: Global Politics and Strategy 56.4 by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: International Institute for Strategic Studies
Published: 2014-07-20T16:00:00+00:00

Survival | vol. 56 no. 4 | August–September 2014

Spying on Allies

Leif-Eric Easley

The United States is accused of monitoring the communications of other countries and collecting data on Internet users worldwide, following disclosures made by Edward Snowden, a former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor. US President Barack Obama implied that he did not order the NSA programmes for listening in on over 35 world leaders, including not only those of threatening states, but also those of allies, friendly countries and the United Nations. 1

The White House has pledged that spying on the leaders of allied countries has been discontinued, but many of its international partners still have questions about intelligence practices that may have breached relationships of trust. 2 Doubts have intensified as mounting revelations suggest discrepancies between US government rhetoric and practice, particularly if NSA efforts to crack codes and install back doors for spying have damaged security and confidence in cyberspace. 3 Investigations and heated debates continue, even as reforms take shape under a general consensus that technology outpaced legal guidelines in the years after 9/11, when the Bush and Obama administrations, as well as Congress, gave the NSA too much leeway.

Since the legality of the NSA’s programmes has been challenged in court with mixed results, and the changes to the agency’s practices outlined by President Obama require further specification before they are fully implemented, lawmakers will be responsible for defining parameters to keep NSA activities within the bounds of US law, values and national interests. 4 Reforms are unlikely to make certain types of intelligence gathering absolutely illegal, but will restructure NSA oversight for greater transparency, limiting government storage of data and requiring political approval for controversial operations. The balancing act of protecting national security and respecting civil liberties is ongoing. That process also needs to be informed by the interaction of intelligence operations and diplomatic relations.

This essay examines the implications of the NSA controversy for trust and security cooperation among the US and its allies and partners. Responses to the Snowden revelations have been less strident in East Asia than in Europe and Latin America, raising questions about domestic political context and whether the scandal has distracted international attention from more pressing cyber concerns involving China. Washington and its allies must decide whether to focus on repairing trust or recognising the need to, in the words of US President Ronald Reagan, ‘trust but verify’. 5

In response to the publication of Snowden’s disclosures in the Guardian and the Washington Post , German Chancellor Angela Merkel accused the US of a ‘breach of trust’, asserting that ‘we need to have trust in our allies and partners, and this must now be established once again … spying among friends is not at all acceptable’. 6 Complaints also came from other US partners, including Mexico and Brazil, regarding the monitoring of presidential offices and key economic players, such as Brazilian oil producer Petrobras. 7 Luiz Alberto Figueiredo Machado, Brazil’s foreign minister, stated immediately after the revelations that ‘this is an inadmissible and unacceptable violation of Brazilian sovereignty’.

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