Cryptography and the Global South: secrecy, signals and information imperialism

Dover, Robert; Aldrich, Richard J.

Abstract

© 2020 Global South Ltd. For decades, espionage during the Cold War was often presented as a competition between East and West. The extent to which the Global South constituted the main battleground for this conflict is now being appreciated, together with the way coups and covert regime change represented a continuation of colonialism by other means. Recent revelations about the nature of technical surveillance and signals intelligence during this period paint an even more alarming picture. New research materials released in Germany show the ways in which Washington, London and even Moscow conspired to systematically attack the secure communications of the Global South. For almost half a century, less advanced countries were persuaded to invest significant sums in encryption machines that were adapted to perform poorly. This was a deceptive system of non-secrecy that opened the sensitive communications of the Global South to an elite group of nations, that included former colonial rulers, and emergent neo-imperial powers. Moreover, the nature of this technical espionage, which involved commercial communications providers, is an early and instructive example of digital global information inequality.

Citation

Dover, R., & Aldrich, R. J. (2020). Cryptography and the Global South: secrecy, signals and information imperialism. Third World Quarterly, 41(11), 1900-1917. https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2020.1793665

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jul 6, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Aug 3, 2020
• Publication Date: Jul 31, 2020
• Deposit Date: Jun 8, 2022
• Journal: Third World Quarterly
• Print ISSN: 0143-6597
• Electronic ISSN: 1360-2241
• Publisher: Routledge
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 41
• Issue: 11
• Pages: 1900-1917
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2020.1793665
• Keywords: Cold War; Colonialism; Intelligence; Information; Signals
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/3739346
• Other Repo URL: https://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/138885/