In the shadows
Recommends a new exposé of British authorities’ covert efforts to influence global events
Disrupt and Deny: Spies, Special Forces, and the Secret Pursuit of British Foreign Policy by Rory Cormac Despite being among the most secretive elements of British statecraft, covert actions and special forces loom large in the public perception of intelligence work. Understanding of covert operations is shaped as much by myths, conspiracy theories and spy films as by the historical record. Disrupt and Deny is a bold study of the postwar history of British covert action that aims to deflate these myths: reality can be just as fascinating.
Cormac attacks the subject with impressive energy and industry. He has undertaken a vast research project in the UK and abroad, involving a large number of archives and a trawl through materials released in the great leaks of the past decade or so. The result is an engrossing journey through the history of a stubbornly opaque area of the secret world. It begins in the shadow of the Second World War, with Whitehall minds turning to the problem of battling the Soviets in eastern Europe, before developing to consider the covert actions that accompanied the end of empire in the Middle East, Indonesia and beyond. Cormac concludes with the role of covert actions in contemporary conflicts, including Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.
Readers are introduced to a factor that may temper wilder assumptions about the topic, namely the bureaucracy involvedd. Cormac underlinnes the fact that British covert actions have rarely been wholly gung-ho (in contrast to many CIA operations); they are a tool employed in pursuit of British interests and generally subject to a policy process. This does not mean, of course, that they entail no risk, moral ambiguity or controversy. This becomes abundantly clear in the chapter on operations in Northern Ireland, for example. However, as the book demonstrates, operating in the shadows has often been an attractive option for prime ministers when faced with foreign and domestic challenges.
As Cormac’s numerous examples attest, the grammar of British covert action has remained reasonably consistent even as technology leads to new tools and techniques. Operations launched against Taliban targets are a particularly fascinating vignette into high-tech disruption operations. But the logic of contemporary operations would not surprise those who managed Britain’s early Cold War covert actions in Albania. Contrary to several conspiratorial accounts, Cormac argues that the impetus for covert action is generally borne out of defensive considerations, with caution and maximum deniability being key hallmarks. More recently, operations in Libya, Syria and Somalia – and counter-terrorism operations more generally – are best understood as a form of risk management. This approach will likely continue for the foreseeable future, with Britain working to find effective yet subtle ways to counter hostile action, both online and offline.
Disrupt and Deny is a sterling study of secret British history, but it also offers a valuable perspective on contemporary operations. As Cormac abbly illustrates, covert actions are valuuable tools in a nation’s arsenal, but ones to use with care.