Statecraft

Statecraft  (tradecraft)
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Covertly running a state requires a special skill set, which this website terms "statecraft", a reference to the UK Deep state's Institute for Statecraft.

Statecraft is used on this website to refer to the key techniques used by deep states to control the de facto (not always de jure!) government of a nation state. It is no coincidence that it has a lot in common with tradecraft, the techniques applicable to the spook profession. However, control over a nation government allows for a plethora of much grander, far more all encompassing deceptions to be undertaken.

Origins

Webster's dictionary defines "statecraft" as "the art of conducting state affairs". It has been used sporadically, for example Margaret Thatcher entitled a 2003 book Statecraft: Strategies for a Changing World is a book on politics and international relations. In 2006 Brian Bogart published Document:Sins of Statecraft - The War on Terror Exposed. However, until 2018 it was a little used word not widely understood.

Ironically, it first came to wide public attention due to a failure of statecraft; on 5 November 2018 the hacking collective, 'Anonymous', published a set of documents from the Integrity Initiative. This was to the first in a series of 7 leaks which exposed the hitherto unregarded Institute for Statecraft (IfS). It was revealed to be not the apolitical UK charity it appeared to be on paper, but as a de facto organ of the UK deep state, which had engaged in statecraft such as the smearing of Jeremy Corbyn and the promotion of Russophobia. The group shuttered its website but continued its operations before officially shutting down in August 2023.

Subversion

Full article: Subversion

Subversion is the sine qua non of statecraft. Nowadays almost all national governments have an official narrative about "democracy" — pretty much diametrically opposed to the aims of deep politicians — so subverting governments is the core business of any deep state. An aspiring deep state group which fails to effectively subvert the national law enforcement, judiciary or anti-corruption squad is unlikely to last long. Similarly, without the media on side, it risks sudden exposure at any moment. Control of the intelligence agencies goes pretty much without saying — indeed, they are arguably the heart of most deep state groups, combining unparalleled mass surveillance capabilities with state-subsidised training and equipping to carry out the various functions of statecraft. Moreover, many (perhaps most) nations have laws which explicitly grant intelligence agencies a "national security" get-out-of-jail free card to subvert the justice system. (Something the UK government openly admitted only in 2018).

Direct control of chief executives of the various arms of government is only the most obvious locus of control. More insidious is control of their emotions or of their agendas. Executives who are either well intentioned or well informed present no obstacle to deep state subversion. Only those who are both present a potential obstacle.

Cold War Then and Now‎‎? a 2018 conference booked by Simon Bracey-Lane

The Institute for Statecraft organised various events to promote its Russophobic "New Cold War" narrative. When it became aware that Pedro Baños was in line for promotion to Spain/Department/Homeland Security/Director, it swiftly launched a smear campaign after which he was passed over.

Propaganda

Full article: Propaganda

On an ad hoc basis, propaganda is useful statecraft tactic for a wide variety of purposes - e.g. to promote a casus belli or to help cover-up a particular deep event. When carried out by deep state groups - which generally have a high degree of control over corporate media - it can be used for more ambitious projects such as effecting social change.

"Islamic terrorism"

Full article: “Islamic terrorism”

Uncritical support for the 9-11 Official narrative was essential for the success of the operation and to prevent a criminal investigation.

Together with the COVID-19 project, the 21^st century's most blatant example of a strategic long term propaganda campaign to effect social change is the so-called "war on terror". Launched by a set of spectacular false flag attacks on September 11th, 2001, it was an audacious structural deep event. The corporate media were quick to attribute the blame to Ossama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda. The enemy image of "Islamic terrorism" has been widely used ever since, to facilitate a variety of purposes including initiating resource wars, rolling back civil liberties and the installation of a global control grid.

Fear of the "terrorist threat" is boosted by occasional attacks, some of which are organised either in whole of in part by deep state functionaries. The "war on terror" highlights the importance of propaganda - support from controlled media is vital to preventing people from reaching a realistic judgement about, for example, the relative danger of "terrorists" and traffic accidents.

Strategy of Tension

Full article: Strategy of tension

The phrase "strategy of tension" originated from Italy, where it was coined in the to refer to the years of lead, during which NATO's Operation Gladio carried out bombings, murders and kidnappings. This a campaign of false flag attacks, attributed to communist groups, was successful in suppressing the popularity of the Italian communist party. It also lead to the exposure of the Italian deep state and of Operation Gladio. In the 21st century, this has evolved into Operation Gladio/B, which focuses on "Islamic terror".

Blackmail

Full article: Blackmail

Blackmail is a defining element of statecraft. It at once a very efficient means to control people and allows for a high degree of plausible deniability. It is particularly simple if the victim is already engaged in criminal practices — arguably, a common state of affairs among senior government officials. While evidence of this criminality is helpful, it may not actually be needed - if the victim is persuaded that it exists, a simple threat of exposure may suffice.

Sexual blackmail

Full article: Sexual blackmail

Blackmailing of non-criminals requires more effort. Although simple intimidation can be effective in certain cases, but is potentially riksy, so preferred methods include the fabrication of evidence and use of sting operations involving illicit activities such as drug use or paedophilia. By the 21st century, sexual blackmail has become widespread and routine, explaining the VIPaedophile phenomenon.

Bribery

Full article: Bribery

An age old tacic of control, bribery can be an effective tool of statecraft, not least since the financial resources available to deep state groups are often vast (whether from black ops such as illegal drug trafficking, financial fraud or just because they control the public purse). Moreover, bribery can easily be converted into blackmail by threats of prosecution if need arises.

A particularly important (and widespread) campaign of bribery was carried out by The Enterprise in the 1980s, under the direction of George H. W. Bush, illustrating another aspect of statecraft:

“The financial frauds conducted by The Enterprise were designed to implicate, enrich and entrap a huge swath of the political class in DC. Fraudulent securities or oil and gas deals were offered to friends to enrich them and enemies to entrap them. In some cases, enemies were suckered in with easy profits on small investments only to be bankrupted when larger fraudulent investments imploded. By the time that the Iran Contra scandal made the headlines, such a large number of congressmen and DC insiders were implicated that any attempt to expose the scale of the scandal would have resulted in a near wholesale implication of the political class. In many ways, this endemic corruption is what makes political reform in Washington so difficult, the level of corruption is so pervasive that the political class has no choice but to cover for each other’s crimes or risk mutually assured destruction.”
Mark Gorton (2013-11-22) 

Cover

The goal of statecraft the control a state. In the modern era, since the vast majority of nation states purport to be "democracies", this control must be covertly exercised, so camouflage is essential. The IfS, one of countless UK charities, was officially headquartered not in a Whitehall basement just down from the UK MoD from which it was actually run, but in a remote mill in Scotland.

Plausible deniability

Full article: Plausible deniability

In tradecraft, plausible deniability is an important fallback position in case of unexpected exposure. In statecraft however, although desirable, it is only one of many ways to evade responsibility. Deep states generally have a high degree of influence over the police, legal system and corporate media or a nation (to say nothing of its intelligence agencies), any of which provide alternative can be used to contain the truth.

Violence

Full article: Violence

Violence, like intimidation, can be an effective means of control over both individuals and groups, but it risks breaking cover.

Assassination

Full article: assassination

The methods of statecraft certainly include assassination, but it is not a preferred option. It is a tactic is reserved only for the most intransigent cases, when other methods will not suffice. While the craft of the assassin is a relatively simple one, the statecraft needed to cover-up assassination of a high profile individual is much more complex. For examples of the cover-up in practice, the reader is referred to four assassinations of 1960s which are now hidden in plain sight: JFK, RFK, Malcolm X, and MLK. The reluctance of the US Deep State to carry out an assassination can be inferred from the fact that, rather than assassinate William Pepper, or they let him successfully bring a civil lawsuit which found unnamed agencies of the US government guilty of assassinating Martin Luther King. This event also demonstrates their skill at controlling corporate media to prevent any repercussions.

Occasionally deep state assassinations, while ruled as suicides, seem bizarre in the extreme. This increases their effectiveness as warnings to anyone doubtful of the deep state's ability to assassinate them and get away with it.

Structural deep events

While many people have been assassinated to try to contain the truth of 9-11, this is probably fewer the number of JFK assassination related deaths, although the event itself was larger. This may highlight an increasing awareness of the Streisand Effect - assassination of enemies and truth seekers is an increasingly high risk strategy.

Challenges

The reliance of statecraft on misinformation may prove to be a fatal flaw, threatening the continued existence of deep state groups. As 21^st century continues to facilitate the global spread of information at near light speed, the challenge of controlling information is formidable.

 

Examples

Page name	Description
"Continuity of Government"	A plan for undermining and infiltrating government, activated by the US Deep state on 9-11
"Digital identity"	information used by computer systems to represent a person or group.
"Extraordinary rendition"	Kidnapping and forced transfer of individuals by intelligence agencies from one legal jurisdiction to another without recourse to legal proceedings.
"Lone nut"	Deep state functionary Lee Harvey Oswald, the canonical "lone nut", described himself as "a patsy" on his arrest and was killed in police custody by another USDS-affiliated lone nut. The commercially-controlled media continue to obscure the later finding of the HSCA, that JFK was killed by a conspiracy.
"National interest"	A plastic phrase used as a tool of statecraft.
"Nothing to see"
Alienation	Keeping the populace alienated is a goal of the Deep State.
Assassination	Assassination is the extra-judicial killing of particular people, often indicative of deep politics at work. Illegal under most legal systems, the Western commercially controlled media has recently been introducing a euphemism for this: if carried out by "us" (Western democracies such as the USA) against "them" (demonized bogeymen), the preferred term is "targeted killing", the legality of which goes unquestioned.
Asset stripping	A tactic used to centralise control and power.
Astroturfing	Rolling out of fake grassroots movements
Authority	In addition to the standard meaning, "Authority" and "Authoritative" are sometimes used on Wikispooks not as an accolade, but to suggest distrust, reflecting the fact that 'the establishment' often seeks to bolster its power through specious claims of "authority".
Balkanisation	The external breaking up of nation states to oppress people.
Bilderberg/Effect	A sudden career advancement, such as might happen to a deep state functionary who attends a Bilderberg meeting
Blackmail	Blackmail is the use of intimidation (such as the threat of violence or of disclosing secret information) as a means of control. The deep state uses this a covert means to control politicians.
Bribery	Influencing people by illicit gifts, very commonly of money.
COVID-19/Zero Covid	Policy during Covid-19 to have no cases of a flu-like disease, which (as history has shown) proved impossible. Heavily enforced by China when many other countries already abandoned the policy within a year or 2. Its scientific need has never been proven.
Classification	Intelligence classification are methods by which different levels of access based on the sensitivity of the information are designated to different people; generally used to prevent unauthorized individuals from viewing or leaking sensitive data.
Compartmentalisation	An ancient technique of dividing information up between people to prevent the 'bigger picture' from being available to any of them.
Consumerism	Consumerism creates the illusion of inclusion or belonging to the in-group of rich and successful people
Controlling the narrative
Corporate media/Deep state control	On important topics, control of the corporate media by the deep state is the rule, not the exception.
Corporate media/Logic	Corporate media uses psychological tactics to attract more viewers. The tactics have become a standard set of rules how to present articles, to make sure politicians and their special interest groups can influence the public's opinion more easily and quickly. People often neglect the idea that the news on their favourite channel is biased with a reason as it fits their personal opinion.
Cover-up	The cover-up sides of deep events tend to be much more complex and instructive than their commission - an assassination is a relatively routine task as opposed to hiding an assassination.
Deep state recruitment network	Future leaders in deep state structures have to come from somewhere.
Deep state/Policy	The policies of deep state
Deepfake	A futuristic and dystopian technology to impersonate...anyone in a video, audio, picture or combined. Use in statecraft is probably already here.
Demoralisation	Keeping the populace demoralised is a goal of the Deep State.
Diplomatic immunity	An internationally agreed arrangement to confers special legal privileges on diplomats.
Divide and rule
Election/Fraud	Only happens in Third World countries your American oil hawks don't like.
Entrapment	Spooky tactic.
Fifth Column	Deep state term.
Gaslighting	Playing tricks on others and telling them they must be imagining things.
Gentrification	The process whereby the character of a poor urban area is changed by wealthier people moving in displacing current inhabitants in the process.
Geoengineering	Deliberate manipulation of the earth for fun, profit and/or military utility. The official narrative about current use is that it is principally an attempt to offset fossil fuel derived global warming <a href="#cite_note-1">[1]</a> - so that's OK then.
Gleichschaltung
Gun control
Handler
Hidden agenda	Dishonest motives.
Historical revision	Rewriting history.
Hit piece	something published with the intent to sway public opinion by presenting false information in a way that appears objective and honest.
Iconoclasm	The destruction of art, images and monuments. A part of Cultural genocide.
Identity politics	A divide and rule strategy that focuses on superficial issues such as gender, religion or even skin color to promote infighting.
Information Operation
Israel/Judaization of Jerusalem	Slow-motion but determined ethnic cleansing of Jerusalem
Limited hangout	A propaganda technique to try to suppress the revelation of secret information.
Memory hole	Mentioned in Nineteen Eighty-Four as a tool of censorship, now used metaphorically to describe the fate of unpalatable truths.
Mental health	Can be used to try to suppress truth
Missing documents	Files do go missing, both accidentally and on purpose. This article reviews some of the common patterns.
Need to know	Giving information only when needed to only those people who need it is fundamental to both tradecraft and statecraft.
... further results

 

Related Quotations

Page	Quote	Date
"Continuity of Government"	“It's important that the UN and WHO remain very clear, but when they challenge governments directly, they often get into this issue of sovereignty. (...) I think it's really critical to think about soft power influence, which is other influentials, who can call up the head of state, or powerful constituencies within those countries. We've seen this in the context of mobilizing religious leaders in the context of polio, or specific business leaders where you can soften perhaps a very hard line from government through less more stealthy entry points, rather than trying to punish them (...)”	18 October 2019
Event 201	“It's important that the UN and WHO remain very clear, but when they challenge governments directly, they often get into this issue of sovereignty. And so I think it's really important not to have that as the only response. I think it's really critical to think about soft power influence, which is other influentials, who can call up the head of state, or powerful constituencies within those countries. We've seen this in the context of mobilizing religious leaders in the context of polio, or specific business leaders where you can soften perhaps a very hard line from government through less more stealthy entry points, rather than trying to punish them through the International Health Regulations or something like that.”	18 October 2019

 

Related Documents

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:Sins of Statecraft - The War on Terror Exposed	paper	29 July 2006	Brian Bogart
File:MindWar.pdf	paper	1980	Paul E. Vallely Michael A. Aquino

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References

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