Plausibly deniable

Scholars have questioned if plausible deniability can be practically achieved. Many covert operations have their sponsorship apparent although officially unacknowledged, and states have sometimes derived value from such "implausibly deniable" action, for example by signalling resolve to an adversary while limiting pressure to escalate. In pragmatics, researchers have examined how even thinly veiled innuendo retains a degree of deniability, and why denials of an insinuated message can succeed even when the message was understood by everyone involved.