Political Science Commons^™

International Intrigue In The American Colonies, Arianna Vicinanza

Graduate Research Conference (GSIS)

Spies have always been a subject of intrigue, nowadays we are surrounded by films, tv series, and books based on undercover business. Usually espionage is associated with WW2 or the Cold War, two periods of times in which espionage and secret agencies were essential in order to gather critical information about the enemy. Despite common belief that secret services developed one century ago, espionage and Spy Rings are as old as time. Espionage is the oldest profession in the world, kings used spies to monitor the enemy or to discover plots going around the royal court. In the American Revolution, …

Hell's Black Intelligencers: Representing Clandestine Labor On The Early Modern Stage, Evan Alexander Hixon

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation, "Hell's Black Intelligencers: Representing Clandestine Labor on the Early Modern Stage," builds upon critical scholarship pertaining to early modern service and political theory to interrogate the imagined economic and social functions of clandestine service in the plays of Shakespeare, Jonson, and Webster. Drawing heavily on the works of András Kiséry, David Schalkwyk, Elizabeth Rivlin, and Michael Neill, I look at the exchange of service between spy and spymaster as an accumulation of social and cultural capital. Thinking through spying in this light, this dissertation explores how playwrights represent these service relationships which fall outside of systems of patronage-driven …

Bridging The Realms Between Cyber And Physical: Approaching Cyberspace With An Interdisciplinary Lens, Lena Andrea Rose

Senior Theses

This project investigates the use of cyber technology as a political tool through the investigation of the following case studies: (1) The Sony Pictures Hack in the United States in 2014, (2) The Qatari News Hack in 2017, and (3) China’s enactment of the Hong Kong National Security Law in 2020. These three case studies depict that rapid technological advancement has led to greater cyber warfare between state powers. The Sony Hack examines political coercion, the Qatari Hack examines disinformation, and the Hong Kong National Security Law examines surveillance and suppression of opposition. As a result of an increasingly complicated …

A Dangerous New Era: Analyzing The Impact Of Cyber Technology On International Conflict, Kenneth Brown

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This paper examines the causal relationship between cyber technology’s deep global integration and changes in how states struggle for power in the international system. Specifically, it argues that cyber technology has changed international conflict by providing external actors the ability to penetrate states’ grand strategy decision-making and implementation processes to an unprecedented degree and scope. As a result, the meaning of power has changed from a material-centric metric to one that is more nuanced and difficult to measure.

To explore this hypothesis, the study follows a three-step process. First, it examines the history of cyber technology, how it has become …

B613?, Donna Roberts

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

Comment from IBPP Editor: Psychological research traditions relevant to this article include (1) magical thinking not as schizotypal indicator but as normative phenomenon, (2) the developmental sequence of primary omniscience followed by the paranoid-schizoid and depressive positions of Kleinian psychoanalysis, and (3) collective psychologies including the Jungian collective unconscious as exploitable by charismatic political leaders.

Author's abstract: Hollywood will always be Hollywood. There will always be ridiculous chase scenes, impossible rescues and implausible conspiracies, each accompanied by the proverbial warning, “Don’t try this at home.” But sometimes, when art seems to imitate life and aspects of the fantasy world on …

The Trojan Horse In Your Head: Cognitive Threats And How To Counter Them, Lora Pitman

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

Vulnerabilities of the human mind caused by the way it is designed to process information have always been exploited in warfare, since the dawn of humanity. History is marked with frequent use of deceits and manipulations over the centuries, with examples ranging from the use of the Trojan Horse to Facebook’s user-profiling. While largely used over time, these tactics, that I call cognitive threats, have not been collectively examined. I hypothesize that they pose a security issue to which prevention strategies on different levels could be successfully applied. The research questions that this study asks are what the characteristics of …

“I’Ll Be Your Mirror”, The Soul, And Intelligence And Counterintelligence Applications, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article describes how the psychological trope of mirroring can explicate mass leadership and betrayals of trust.

Treason, Treachery, And Betrayal Of Trust: The Psychological Search For The Why, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

Treason, treachery, and betrayal of trust constitute a motif of human history. Can scientific psychology help us understand why?

People's War In Cyberspace: Using China's Civilian Economy In The Information Domain, Kieran Richard Green

Military Cyber Affairs

China is identified as posing a key challenge to US national security interests in cyberspace. These threats are incurred across the spectrum of conflict, ranging from low-level crime, to network penetration, to cyberattacks that have the potential to cause major physical destruction. Thus far, the majority of strategic assessments of China’s cyber capabilities have focused on the role of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), which is officially tasked with undertaking offensive operations in cyberspace.[1] However, China does not employ its cyber capabilities in isolation. Rather, it considers cyber to be part of the “Information Domain.” In Chinese doctrine, controlling …

Review Of David Horner,'The Spy Catchers: The Official History Of Asio, 1949-1963', Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2014, Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

Critical review of the officially commissioned history of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) published in 2014.

Atomic Weapons Program, Soviet, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Provides a history of the Soviet Union and Russian Federation's nuclear weapons program. It emphasizes the role of espionage in acquiring this capability, personalities such as Igor Kurchatov and Andrei Sakharov, this arsenal's multifaceted capabilities, arms control treaties with the U.S., the Nunn-Lugar Agreement, the environmental damage caused by this program, and the continuing role of nuclear weapons in Russian national security.

Sojuznik Snowden: A Solid Russian Investment, Jan Kallberg

Jan Kallberg

The Edward Snowden case catapulted us back to the heights of the Cold War for one single reason: His story is too manicured and well-placed to be true. As the old saying goes: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn’t. With the Snowden affair, many of the Russian political objectives are reached. It has has created a wedge that split the United States and Europe. Even if Vladimir Putin wears a fancy Italian suit, he is still a KGB-man, slightly better looking than the official grey suits in the heyday of the Soviet Eastern Bloc. The …

Spying: A Normative Account Of The Second Oldest Profession, Ronald E. Watson

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

My dissertation attends to the urgent ethical problems raised by government spying. It asks and answers three principal questions: What is spying? What principles should regulate government spying? And how can government agents be constrained to follow these principles?

The first chapter takes up the conceptual question. I defend the following definition of spying: agent A spies on agent B, if and only if she collects information that relates to B and intends to conceal her information collection from B. The main challenge any conception of spying faces is to cover a relatively wide range of agents often thought to …

Who Was Elizabeth Hanson? Book Reveals The Secret Circumstances Surrounding The Death Of The Cia's Rising Star, Gerry Boyle

Colby Magazine

Book by Washington Post reporter reveals the secret circumstances surrounding the death of rising CIA star Elizabeth Hanson ’02.

Fool For Love: The Psychology Of Security Violation, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article discusses why Pfc. Bradley Manning, United States (US) Army, who has been accused of illegally disclosing classified material—more than 150,000 diplomatic cables, 90,000 intelligence reports, and at least one video – allegedly performed the actions in question.

Spy High: The Secret Of Secret Russian Agents, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

The author discusses Russian spying the United States, the psychology of espionage, and how spying as such may be part of the human condition.

Maturing International Cooperation To Address The Cyberspace Attack Attribution Problem, Jeff J. Mcneil

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

One of the most significant challenges to deterring attacks in cyberspace is the difficulty of identifying and attributing attacks to specific state or non-state actors. The lack of technical detection capability moves the problem into the legal realm; however, the lack of domestic and international cyberspace legislation makes the problem one of international cooperation. Past assessments have led to collective paralysis pending improved technical and legal advancements. This paper demonstrates, however, that any plausible path to meaningful defense in cyberspace must include a significant element of international cooperation and regime formation.

The analytical approach diverges from past utilitarian-based assessments to …

The Birds And The Bees: Sex And Personnel Security, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

The author discusses gender identity and sexual activity as they relate to security personnel in the context of espionage.

Trends. Espionage And Sex: A Commentary On Personnel Security Criteria, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This Trends article discusses one aspect of sexual orientation – homosexuality - in a security and intelligence context.

Special Article: Recommendations For Optimal Personnel Security In The Cyberworld, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article considers the social construction of recommendations for personnel security in the context of a global cyberworld.

Musings On One Who Got Away: Personnel Security, Counterintelligence, And Edward Lee Howard, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article describes several concerns with the United States Government's (USG) approach to minimizing betrayal by its personnel who are entrusted with security clearances, special access to sensitive information, and sensitive positions.

Counter-Intelligence On Espionage In The People's Republic Of China, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article analyzes the consensual Western perception that many allegations of espionage made by the government of the People's Republic of China (PRC) are violations of universal human rights.

Latrogenic Insecurity: A Legacy Of Marie Jahoda, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article describes the security relevance of an article published 45 years ago by the recently deceased social psychologist, Marie Jahoda.

Trends. Banning Espionage, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article discusses the psychological aspects of the idea of banning espionage as presented in an article in SECRECY NEWS from the Federation of American Scientists Project on Government Secrecy.

Fantasy And The Fantasy Of Espionage, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article explores relationships between fantasy and the commission of espionage.

Tit For Tat, Patty Cake, And Hide And Seek: The Psychology Of Spy Games, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article explores the psychology of tit-for-tat reactions in the context of espionage and counterespionage.

Counterintelligence And Insecure Cognitions: The Case Of Robert P. Hanssen, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article identifies cognitions harbored as security-philic beliefs by well-meaning policymakers but associated with even greater security vulnerability.

The Person In Personnel Security: A Vulnerability In Espionage Analysis, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article describes some espionage-relevant content variables within which individual behavior is embedded.

Trends. Psychologies Of Personnel Security And Counterintelligence Failure: Racism, Satisficing, And Wen Ho Lee, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article discusses issues surrounding the actions of Mr. Wen Ho Lee in the context of espionage, treason, and national security as well as racial profiling and the problems with conducting counterintelligence.

The Pollard Case And The Nature Of Espionage, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article describes some common misconceptions in evaluating the appropriateness of penalties for individuals convicted of espionage.