©2010. International Journal of Applied Philosophy 23:2. ISSN 0738-098X. pp. 213–234 US Military and Covert Action and Global Justice Sagar Sanyal ABSTRACT: US military intervention and covert action is a significant con- tributor to global injustice. Discussion of this contributor to global injustice is relatively common in social justice movements. Yet it has been ignored by the global justice literature in political philosophy. This paper aims to fill this gap by introducing the topic into the global justice debate. While the global justice debate has focused on inter-national and supra-national in- stitutions, I argue that an adequate analysis of US military and covert action must focus on domestic institutions of the US. I describe many such institu- tions including industry lobbying, the ubiquity of US military bases abroad, US programs for training foreign militaries, secrecy of the intelligence and military agencies, pliant news media and government propaganda. U S military intervention and covert action is a signiicant contributor to global injustice. Discussion of this contributor to global injustice is relatively common in social justice movements. Yet it has been ignored by the global justice literature in political philosophy. It is odd that while the global justice debate has tackled such issues as whether imperatives of progressive redistribution of wealth apply globally as they do domestically, it has remained silent on the much more glaring injustice of systematic aggression and intervention by a global superpower. This paper aims to ill this gap by introducing the topic into the global justice debate. I describe the major institutional features contributing to the injustices. A program for addressing these injustices would focus on reforms to these insti- tutions. I do not present such a program here, since adequate evaluation of the relative merits of competing reform proposals would require lengthy discussion. However, I hope that identifying the relevant institutions will provide impetus towards such a research program. Section One places the project in the context of related existing literature. The project difers from the just war theory literature in part because of the discussion of covert action. Another novel feature of the project is the view that adequately addressing US military and covert action within the global justice debate requires focusing on domestic US institutions. This contrasts to the usual focus of global jus- tice theory on inter-national and supra-national institutions. Section Two outlines