Fortress Leader

Watching the Watchers: A New Era of Surveillance When NSA whistle blower Edward Snowden revealed the scope of programs like PRISM in 2013, he ignited a global debate on mass surveillance. Snowden’s leaks “exploded round the world,” touching off diplomatic rows and a public reckoning over privacy ( theguardian.com ) . Some U.S. lawmakers even called this debate “nothing less than the defence of democracy in the digital age” ( theguardian.com ) . In the years since, a parade of global surveillance programs – from the U.S. NSA’s data trawls to China’s social credit system and new European data rules – have challenged traditional notions of state sovereignty, trust, and individual freedom. Below we explore how governments’ insatiable demand for data has reshaped geopolitics, privacy and power. Allies Turned Adversaries: Trust Erodes When Neighbours Spy Historically, espionage was directed at rivals. Today, the Five Eyes intelligence alliance (US, UK, Canada, Australia, NZ) and oth...