A Transnational Protest against the National Security State: Whistle-blowing, Philip Agee, and Networks of Dissent

This article historicizes and transnationalizes the phenomenon of national security whistleblowing. Challenging common interpretations that “blowing the whistle” represents an exclusive security or legal question, the essay explores the transnational connections and networks that have facilitated revelations in the public interest. Focusing on former-CIA operative Philip Agee, the article examines his exposures and wider campaign against the U.S. national security state – as well as its Latin American and European allies – through, across, and between nations. This struggle involved activists, publishers, artists, intellectuals, revolutionaries, peace movements, civil rights organizations, and ordinary citizens. The transnational nature of the protest was both a choice and a necessity as governments on either side of the Atlantic clamped down on whistleblowing. The state response focused on travel control and prior restraint as governments reasserted national security and secrecy privileges. Yet this overlooked the essential point that Agee’s whistleblowing developed and occurred over national borders. By exploring a peripatetic life, this article develops a history of whistleblowing, while contributing to literatures on transnational movements and protest networks, cultures of national security and secrecy, the U.S. and the world, American constitutional and international law, human rights, and the global cold war. It speaks to the possibilities and limits of dissent, the competing demands of national security and democratic transparency, and tensions between state power and civil liberties

Culture and Justice:Europe and Latin America

The podcast is the final episode in a three-part series entitled, "The Public Interest and National Security Whistleblowing: Looking Back, Thinking Forward." The series considers how secrecy and liberty, and security and openness became competing concepts within democratic societies. The podcasts examine questions within and across Europe, North America, and South America, delving into issues relating to Britain, the United States, Spain, France, Argentina, and Chile, among others. This episode, "Culture and Justice" explores state secrecy, disclosures, and whistleblower protection in Latin America and Europe