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Covert Action and Open Society

By Gregory F. Treverton
Summer 1987
Article Summary and Author Biography

Should the USA, in the light of the Iran/Contra affairs, attempt major covert operations at all? If so, under what circumstances can they be reconciled with the requirements of an open democracy? Moral concerns are not absolute and must be weighed against the gravity of the threat and the adequacy of other available responses. Covert action is justifiable provided it is conducted as a last resort and constrained within clear guidelines.

Gregory F. Treverton, a faculty member of Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, served on the first Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (the Church Committee) in 1975-76, and on the staff of the National Security Council during the Carter Administration. This article is adapted from the author’s forthcoming book, Covert Action: The Limits of Intervention in the Postwar World. Copyright © 1987 by Basic Books, Inc. Adapted by permission of Basic Books, New York.

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