Transparency of Secrecy: A Comparative Case Study of Approaches to Classification Regimes

“[A]s we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we... [ view full abstract ]

“[A]s we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don't know we don't know.” (Donald Rumsfeld)

The administrative transparency is understood as a democratic imperative, enabled through laws and policies directed towards the openness of activities of bureaucracies and governments. Transparency provisions, however, are rarely all-encompassing. Information of national security are a prevalent case of exception in many legislations.

The secrecy accruing from these exceptions creates an accountability gap, which can only be addressed if niches of opacity themselves are justified by a transparent process. This is what I will call the ‛transparency of secrecy’.

The ‛transparency of secrecy’ is investigated through a comparative review of laws and policies pertaining freedom of information and openness, focusing specifically on exceptions to openness regimes. This study examines exceptions to openness provisions in different laws and policies and determines how elaborate and traceable criteria for non-disclosure are.

Considering that exceptions to openness are primarily based on the argument of national security, this research compares (1) various understandings of national security in legislations, (2) criteria legislations provide for what counts as information of national security, (3) provisions for disclosure and non-disclosure in security sector institutions. For the latter, the study focusses on the military sector for reasons of both feasibility and comparability. In sum, the study provides a comparison of how limits of transparency are constructed when applied to sensitive areas of government.

This paper offers a cross-country comparison of approaches to the borders of transparency based on data deriving from a content analysis of legal and policy documents. Moreover, the focus on transparency in the security sector addresses the lack of empirical research in the field.

Key Words: FOI laws, Classification, Secrecy and Transparency, Security Sector