Transversal intelligence oversight in the United States: Squaring the circle?

This chapter examines multifaceted US intelligence oversight issues as part of a larger endeavor to understand the continuing leadership impunity in liberal democracies against the backdrop of persisting human rights violations. It scrutinizes the concept of oversight within the United States and lays out a conceptual framework of transversal oversight. It sheds light on congressional oversight mechanisms, discussing dilemmas faced by stakeholders and critically examining institutional practices. By connecting the epistemological underpinnings of statecraft and the political sociology of law, the paper emphasizes the transversal nature of oversight politics. Drawing on this mapping, the chapter then employs a transversal oversight perspective to analyze a number of empirical cases to further our understanding on actors, practices, and norms of intelligence and security oversight. The author argues that while oversight practices remain problematic, transversal legal advances in an increasing number of court cases prove potentially powerful to fuel accountability and fight impunity.