Deception, Betrayal, and Terrorism

Successful use of intelligence has been an important resource for states in the making of grand diplomatic and military policy. In the Second World War, the ULTRA secret permitted the Allies to decrypt German military communications, thus providing them with a strategic leg-up. Intelligence failures, like Air India or 9/11, have caused massive political embarrassment.

Yet day-to-day intelligence activities often serve less exalted purposes. It is a dirty but not very well-kept secret that all too often spying is just pornography for states, allowing them to engage in prurient games that fall short of actual conflicts with material consequences. John Le Carré’s Cold War novels capture this reality with cynical precision. The frissons of deception and betrayal grip readers but mean next to nothing in the bigger picture of global politics.