Decoding Geopolitics Podcast with Dominik Presl #102 Rory Cormac: Coups, Assassinations and Covert Wars Are Back - And the Rules Have Changed
Jan 17, 2026
Rory Cormac, a Professor of International Relations at the University of Nottingham, delves into the murky world of covert actions and state-sponsored maneuvers. Discover how nations conduct undercover operations, from the U.S. attempts in Venezuela to Russia's intrusions in Europe. Cormac discusses the paradox of how secrecy often becomes public and the challenges of attributing political outcomes to covert interventions. Historical case studies reveal the complex long-term impacts of these clandestine actions and pose critical questions about their ethical use by democracies.
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
Covert Action Is A Key Statecraft Puzzle
- Covert action is intellectually stimulating and historically significant in international relations.
- Rory Cormac explains he moved from intelligence assessments to studying covert operations because the subject revealed brutal, important state choices.
Secrecy Skews What We Can Study
- Studying covert action is hard because secrecy limits sources and creates biases in available records.
- Rory Cormac uses historical approaches and cautions about U.S.-centric declassification shaping the literature.
External Influence Amplifies Internal Forces
- It's difficult to separate external covert influence from internal political dynamics.
- Cormac emphasizes covert action usually amplifies pre-existing domestic forces rather than creating them from scratch.
