This book analyses the challenges of secrecy in security research, and develops a set of methods to navigate, encircle and work with secrecy.

Introduction: navigating secrecy in security research, Interlude: rigorous research in critical security studies, PART 1: Secrecy complexities; Section I: Secrecy, silence and obfuscation, 1. The problem of access: site visits, selective disclosure, and freedom of information in qualitative security research, 2. The state is the secret: for a relational approach to the study of border and mobility control in Europe, 3. Postsecrecy and place: secrecy research amidst the ruins of an atomic weapons research facility, Section II: Access, confidentiality and trust, 4. Navigating difficult terrain, 5. Accessing lifeworlds: getting people to say the unsayable. 6. Research dilemmas in dangerous places, PART 2: Mapping secrecy, Section III: Reflexive methodologies, 7. Writing secrecy, 8. Gender, ethics and critique in researching security and secrecy, 9. (In)visible security politics: reflections on photography and everyday security landscapes, Section IV: Ethnographies of technologies, 10. The black box and its dis/contents: complications in algorithmic devices research, 11. Multi-sited ethnography of digital security technologies, 12. Researching the emergent technologies of state control: the court-martial of Chelsea Manning, PART 3: Research secrets, Section V: Critique and advocacy, 13. Searching for the smoking gun? Methodology and modes of critique in the arms trade, 14. Critical engagement when studying those you oppose, 15. Secrecy vignettes, Section VI: Research ethics in practice, 16. Research ethics at work: account-abilities in fieldworkon security, 17. Material guides in ethically challenging fields: following deportation files, Index