archive

What is the deep state?

As leaks multiply, fears of a “deep state” in America. Are deep-state leakers defending democracy or corroding it? There’s a showdown coming between Trump and the “deep state” and none of the outcomes are good: Jefferson Morley interviews Michael J. Glennon, author of National Security and Double Government. What is the deep state? Even if we assume the concept is valid, surely it’s not useful to think of the competing interests it represents as monolithic. Rafael Khachaturian on ditching the deep state: There is no unified “deep state” pulling the strings behind the scenes — the state itself is a site of struggle. There is no American “deep state”: Experts on Turkish politics say the use of that term misunderstands what it means in Turkey — and the ways that such allegations can be used to enable political repression.