Transformations of the transnational field of secret services: The reasons for a systemic crisis of legitimacy?

Based on international political sociology (IPS), this chapter analyses through a field approach how the transformation of the scale of action in terms of secret violence and surveillance of large segments of the population has disrupted the tacit agreement that the use of secret services is a necessity for stability in the world. The practices of the coalitions of secret services have gone wrong after the three episodes of extraordinary rendition, mass surveillance and, more recently, the use of spyware to target opponents, journalists and human rights defenders. The current combination of four main factors (transnational coalition, preventive ideology, digital capacities, and marketization) explains the qualitative expansion of the field of transnational secret services and its impact on everyday citizens and internet users. The impact of the transnational guilds changes power politics globally. Therefore, a legitimacy gap is emerging, and the need for a transnational oversight about what the "watchers" are doing is now on the agenda. From inside the services as well as from many other actors, the obligation to recreate a sense of limits distinguishing democracies from other regimes is considered necessary.