7.3.4  Covert Intervention in the Affairs of Other Countries

(This is an archived extract from the book Patterns of Power: Edition 2)

Covert intervention in the affairs of other countries can take the form of assassinations, sabotage or helping resistance groups.  By definition, such operations are intended to be secret – so the target country finds it hard to prove that they have taken place, and therefore finds it difficult to obtain legal protection.  Self-protection might be the objective of the intervention, and the response is also likely to be an attempt at self-protection.

As mentioned, it is difficult to prove that an assassination attempt has taken place.  Bill Clinton retaliated against Iraq for an alleged attempt to assassinate former President George H.  Bush in 1993, for example, although Iraq denied that the attempt had been made.[1]  It is also alleged that the Israeli Intelligence agency, Mossad, tried to kill Saddam Hussein with an exploding book,[2] and that it made other assassination attempts.  More recently, assassinations have been carried out by making drone strikes (7.3.2.3) – which are not covert.

Sabotage in the past might have taken the form of destroying key elements of the country's infrastructure, for example by blowing up a bridge.  Nowadays it can take the form of cyber-attacks, against a power grid for example, which could have the effect of weakening the target country – perhaps as part of a wider strategy to undermine its power.  It is suspected that such cyber-attacks may already have taken place, and technology is making them easier, but it is difficult to prove who carried them out;[3] the perpetrators could have been malicious individuals, or part of a terror network, or hostile countries.  The target country might have no recourse in law because cyber-attacks can be carried out from a remote location and extradition would not be granted.

Of all covert foreign attempts to overthrow a government, perhaps the 1953 CIA-inspired coup in Iran is perhaps the most notorious.[4]  Mohammad Mossadeq's democratically elected government was overthrown and he was replaced by Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi.  This coup permanently damaged relations between America and Iran.  There are also many less dramatic examples of one country trying to undermine another, by helping resistance fighters; Iran supplies weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon, for example, as a way of waging war against Israel by proxy.[5]

Covert interventions are less likely to incur reprisals, and are therefore less risky, than overt military action.  It may be hard to prove to the UN what is happening, so countries have to take their own countermeasures.[6]  In the longer term it may be possible to negotiate treaties and to find political solutions to lessen the threat.

© PatternsofPower.org, 2014