Events

A significant amount of work in U.S. national security entails the use of secret information. Secrecy is essential in conducting intelligence, making plans to defend the United States from military or cyber-attack, preparing for military contingencies against hostile nations, protecting sensitive technologies from foreign theft, and keeping our nuclear arsenal safe. The business of making secrets, protecting them from foreign exposure, and declassifying them for release to the American public can be called the secrecy paradigm. When it works best, this paradigm serves the nation well. At its worst, it jeopardizes national security. This lecture explains how and why some government information becomes classified, how well and how poorly it is protected, and how much of it gets revealed publicly to U.S. citizens and/or enemies through authorized disclosures or unauthorized leaks and foreign spying. Bruce explores why today’s secrecy paradigm is terminally broken, poorly serves U.S. national security, and what can be done to fix it.