Counterintuitive: Intelligence Operations and International Law

John C. Yoo, University of California, Berkeley
Glenn Sulmasy, Coast Guard Academy

Abstract

This essay addresses proposals for international regulation of intelligence gathering activities. We show that international law currently does not express any strong norms against intelligence gathering. We argue that international law is incapable of regulating such activities and proposals for change would prove counterproductive. Careful attention to the causes of war between rational nation-states shows that these efforts will have the highly undesirable result of making war more, rather than less, likely.