Covert action refers to actions that a government or agency undertakes with the aim of influencing economic, political and military conditions abroad. Covert action is used as a tool of strategic decision-making because it ensures that the role of the government does not become apparent or publicly acknowledged. Covert action does not involve traditional counter-intelligence, military, diplomatic or law enforcement activities. Therefore, it plays a major role as a tool for strategic decision-making since its activities are not apparent or publicly acknowledged.
Conflicts do exist when an intelligence agency is the same that uses secret information to carry out executive decisions to engage in covert action. According to Scott (164), the distinction between home and abroad becomes less clear. This is because some governments tend to practice what they undertake abroad at home. For example, when elite special operations troops are put under the control of the CIA, then they can be able to deny their presence in a foreign country because they become spies. Such activities are unclear and this can lead to the inappropriate utilization of military personnel. According to Scott (168), covert action may be designed specifically to destabilize nations, as did US covert action play a role in provoking radical revisions of the Cold War. Overlaps do exist when gathering intelligence and conducting clandestine diplomacy, as well as secret intervention. For example, the CIA did cooperate with the Iranian Secret Service in 1983 by providing details of Soviet agents (Scott 169).
Covert action both supports the practice of state-craft, but it is also a tool that is used to carry out actions that further military, security, economic and business interests. Scott (170) identifies the clandestine diplomatic role that British intelligence played in the peace process in Northern Ireland, and the role of Mossad in Middle East peace building and diplomacy.
Works Cited
Scott, Len. Secret Intelligence, Covert Action and Clandestine Diplomacy. New York: Taylor & Francis Ltd, 2004.
