Ramifications of Wikileaks and global resistance to diplomatic secrecy

Share |

Posted on 13 December 2010

Dr Luis Lobo-Guerrero, Lecturer in International Relations at SPIRE and Visiting Research Fellow at King's College, was interviewed at the Stuart George Show of BBC Radio Stoke on Monday 13th of December 2010, on the implications of the recent Wikileaks' 'Cablegate'.

Dr Lobo-Guerrero commented that the problem reveals two clear aspects with a common ground.

On the one hand is the issue of democratic political control where a global border-less civil society claims a right to hold government diplomatic practices accountable. Hacktivism is presented as a crusade for the freedom of information and its tactics are justified as a means to resist diplomatic secrecy and punish Wikileaks detractors.

On the other hand is the media spectacle where classified information becomes an object of desire by virtue of its secret nature and is disseminated and consumed through the Internet.

The common ground is a border-less and virtual environment where the security dimension of the leaked information is reduced to evidence of how governments censor information in the promotion of their national interests.

There is a BBC iPlayer link to the whole programme.
 
Check out his new book: Insuring Security -biopolitics, security and risk
< back