Abstract

Perhaps nothing has become more evident in the months and years since 9/11 than the tension that exists between the publics access to information and concerns about protecting national security. This tension raises fundamental questions regarding how and to what extent national security secrecy is consistent with American notions of democracy; how institutions governing determinations about secrecy and disclosure should be designed; and the proper role of Congress, the courts, the public, and the media when it comes to government assertions of secrecy. The materials in this book will provide the interested reader a window into the current shape of the eternal push-and-pull between secrecy and access to information in a democracy.