RICHARD BUTLER The Espionage Olympiad and the Art of "Plausible Deniability".

June 16, 2019

If there was a competition between the key ways in which international relations is conducted, aside from the use of military force, then the area of intelligence gathering and the covert pursuit of national objectives - all-round spookery - would easily win gold. It is widespread, has been entrenched for centuries and, nothing matches its deployment of hypocrisy, moral relativism and, all round obscurantism. It is also an endless source of fascination and entertainment; in both fact and fiction.