Secrecy and Oversight: U.S. Law and the Domestic Politics of Covert Action

• In Event: Foreign Policy and American Political Development

Brief Overview

This paper uses archival evidence of U.S. foreign policy during the Angolan Civil War (1974-1989) to demonstrate how Congress’s use of laws as a means of oversight leads to a predictable and unexpected choice of covert action components.

Author

• Melinda H. Haas, Princeton University