Secret Intelligence

Abstract

The two chief purposes of secret intelligence activity abroad are to provide governments with valuable information unobtainable from open sources and covertly to weaken or eliminate their foreign enemies — be they shipping-lane pirates, serious organized criminal gangs, dissidents living abroad, terrorist organizations, or even hostile governments. However, as the consequences of military and terrorist surprise have become more deadly, secret intelligence has also increased the attention it pays to the allies on which particular reliance is placed — for governments feel the need to be sure of their friends. These objectives have some overlap with those of diplomacy, while intelligence officers have also come to rely more and more on the shelter provided by diplomatic missions and consulates. But diplomacy itself rests on the maintenance of normal relations between even unfriendly governments and operates under a legal regime proscribing espionage, let alone active interference in the internal affairs of other states. In such circumstances, how do the spies and the diplomats coexist? With difficulty, as we shall see — but coexist they do.