“We Only Spy on Foreigners”: The Myth of a Universal Right to Privacy and the Practice of Foreign Mass Surveillance

Abstract

The International Law of Intelligence: The World of Spycraft and the Law of Nations provides a first-of-its kind exploration of the contemporary legal framework that governs peacetime intelligence operations. This doctoral project attempts to write the missing textbook on espionage to be added to the grand bookshelf of international law. It rejects decades of academic scholarship that has considered spying an extralegal construct, existing at the edge of international legitimacy, and beyond the grasp of mortal rules and regulations. This dissertation diametrically opposes this line of argumentation while maintaining a clear-eyed view of the important functions that intelligence plays in our public world order, further framing these functions within a larger global constitutive process.