The University of Birmingham, as part of a new series in which academics comment on contemporary issues, brought Professor Stefan Wolff and me together this week to debate the merits and dangers of the WikiLeaks documents.
The full debate, available on the Birmingham website, also encourages readers to vote.
WOLFF: What Makes WikiLeaks So Dangerous?
Misguided, irresponsible, reprehensible—these are just some of the words used by critics to describe the latest set of releases on the website, WikiLeaks. But is this more than hurt pride and should we really care one way or the other?
On one level probably not. For anyone following international affairs, there is very little surprising or new material beyond what most of us either already knew or suspected. There is a problem with organised crime in Russia? The Chinese are fed up with North Korea? The Saudis are opposed to an Iranian bomb? Chris Patten is sceptical about the EU ever becoming a real power? It does not take a genius to figure any of this out.
But publicly confirmed knowledge of these issues is only half the story - having this knowledge in the public domain has consequences. On the one hand, it makes the position of those who go against the grain much harder, including in their own societies or cultures. How is exposing leading Arab politicians for taking a rather grim view on the Iranian nuclear programme going to help to prevent a very dangerous escalation in the Middle East and beyond? Will North Korea now suddenly play nice knowing that its only supposed ally has had enough?
LUCAS: Do We Allow the Government to Re-Assert Unchecked and Unquestioned Control?
In the Category of Irony....
The US State Department announced on Tuesday that it will host UNESCO's World Press Freedom Day event in 2011, “to champion the free flow of information on the Internet”. On the same day, the US Government was pressing companies including Amazon, PayPal, MasterCard and a major Swiss bank, to withdraw technical, communications and financial services from WikiLeaks in the hope that it would knock the website out of existence.
The immediate “crisis” is WikiLeaks’ possible release of more than 250,000 cables from US Embassy. Less than 1000 have been published so far, but already there is a wealth of material about the day-to-day realities and complications of US foreign policy in the public domain. These are the documents that expose the deals, deceptions and diplomatic manoeuvres that are made.