In the early 1980s, the East German Ministry for State Security systematically recruited Arab students as covert informers. Analysis of this historical case contributes to discussions about surveillance as a social practice and to an emerging critical literature about intelligence agencies as knowledge producers and agents of governance. Proceeding from a close reading of archives documenting the recruitment process, I argue that it produced, first, classic modern bureaucratic security mechanisms designed to govern populations and, second, highly specific sovereign interventions into the lives of single individuals. By focusing primarily on the agents of surveillance, rather than its objects, the article addresses an important gap in the surveillance literature.

中文翻译：

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阿拉伯学生和斯塔西：情报的代理人和对象

1980 年代初，东德国家安全部系统地招募阿拉伯学生作为秘密线人。对这一历史案例的分析有助于将监视作为一种社会实践的讨论，以及关于情报机构作为知识生产者和治理代理人的新兴批判性文献。通过仔细阅读记录招募过程的档案，我认为它首先产生了旨在管理人口的经典现代官僚安全机制，其次产生了对单身人士生活的高度具体的主权干预。通过主要关注监视的代理而不是监视对象，本文解决了监视文献中的一个重要空白。