The Truth About SpyWar and How 21st Century Espionage Really Works

RP Members interesting article!

Espionage is a constant in human civilization. Spying features prominently in the Old Testament and it’s often called the “second oldest profession” with good reason. The ancient Chinese sage Sun Tzu wrote eloquently about the strategic importance of espionage and counterespionage fully 2,500 years ago. As long as people have lived in anything resembling societies, they have been stealing secrets from each other.

Although America has the world’s best-funded intelligence services, and our behemoth seventeen-agency Intelligence Community is sufficiently vast to please any Beltway bureaucrat, there are persistent calls for our spies to do more. This has become a drumbeat of late, as the Obama White House fumbles aimlessly around the Middle East in its not-quite-a-war against the Islamic State, the notorious ISIS.

All that’s certain is that the SpyWar, the worldwide clandestine struggle between agents and agencies, will continue no matter what. We’re several thousand years into it already. Spies will keep spying while countering the other side’s spies. Amateurs rail about “more HUMINT.” Professionals want HUMINT and SIGINT, as much of both as possible, working together seamlessly to defend us.