Stop Hiding American Diplomacy

The anniversary of Wikileaks’s cable dump last year is spawning reflections of how the awkward revelations changed the game of international diplomacy. In the journal Democracy, Jonathan Spalter argues that they were a much-needed chance to rethink the expansive secrecy of U.S. relations. “It has become one of the great ironies of our time that while the United States has one of the most open societies in the world, its diplomatic activities and the technology infrastructure that support them still remain among the world’s most secretive and siloed.” Spalter says the secrecy makes the U.S. government increasingly out of touch with citizens who are used to an open-source world.