Open AccessSurveillance Hegemony
Author(s) -
Jason Keiber
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
surveillance and society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.781
H-Index - 46
ISSN - 1477-7487
DOI - 10.24908/ss.v13i2.5299
Subject(s) - hegemony , united states national security agency , agency (philosophy) , espionage , political science , international relations , public administration , sociology , national security , public relations , law , politics , social science
The National Security Agency activity disclosed by Edward Snowden plugs into a larger information ecology made possible by U.S. surveillance hegemony. While the revelations of the NSA’s international spying ambitions have astonished, there is more to U.S. surveillance than secretive programs carried out by its intelligence community. The U.S. also assiduously conducts surveillance on individuals abroad through public programs negotiated with other states. These more public efforts are made possible by institutions and hortatory norms that support international surveillance. This triad of capabilities, norms, and institutions reflect U.S. surveillance hegemony. Hegemony greases the wheels of U.S.-led international surveillance and fosters an information ecology that feeds, and is fed by, secretive programs like those of the NSA and more public surveillance alike. This article unpacks elements of U.S. surveillance hegemony and, using two other public surveillance programs, situates the NSA activity within the resulting information ecology.