Spying and International Relations

According to an August 18th, 2014 Al Jazeera report (which cited Der Spiegel), German intelligence leaders were said to be spying on the phone conversations of Turkish leaders. In the article, it said that

“It follows reports in Der Spiegel that the German intelligence agency, known by its acronym BND, had inadvertently listened to calls made by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and predecessor Hillary Clinton — the kind of activity for which Chancellor Angela Merkel has criticized Washington. The magazine also cited a confidential 2009 BND document listing Turkey as a target for intelligence gathering, but didn’t say what that spying involved.”

This sort of action is sure to upset state leaders, and in the case of Germany and Turkey, it may temporarily strain relations between two countries that do have strong trade ties (Al Jazeera). Furthermore, from cases such as this, it becomes quite clear that states still do carry out phone tapping and spying on other states. International relations is filled with such stories, but we often hear about it years after the event occurs. For example, stories from the Cold War continue to be told, where the US and the Soviet Union had decades of spy activity between one another.

The notion of spying and eavesdropping is interesting when contrasted to ideas of diplomacy in international relations. According the liberal word view, cooperation allows states to work on common objectives in a more efficient manner, reaching these said goals. However, breaking trust by phone monitoring could have long-term effects between countries. In this case, we have to remember that Germany is still very important for Turkish trade. However, it would be surprising if the Turkish leaders forget what just transpired, particularly given that many are still quite upset at the US actions of monitoring conversations of foreign leaders.