Dr. Sarah Dreier is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of New Mexico.

Leaders of Western democracies frequently claim that they must violate select human rights in the name of national security, even when those violations compromise the state’s liberal principles. States in these circumstances have three options: to comply with their liberal principles and human-rights commitments, to defy those commitments and fully embrace illiberal policies, or to enact but attempt to hide their illiberal policies. To see this in action, Dr. Dreier analyzed internal debates—evidenced in more than 8,000 recently declassified government archive pages (1969-1973)—around Britain's decision to initiate and continue internment without trial during its "Troubles in Northern Ireland." Here, Britain's government enacted and continued illiberal policies but attempted—often brazenly—to present those policies as compliant with liberal principles. Her findings demonstrate how states can use liberal legal procedures to veil politically motivated illiberal policies.