The piano player in the canteen barely attracted attention from the masters of revolutionary Petrograd. If they bothered to speak to him at all, they would notice nothing unusual in his destitute appearance and accentless Russian. Yet had the Cheka—the Bolshevik secret police—only known, their ultimate foe was sitting among them. Sir Paul Dukes, the greatest intelligence officer in the history of Britain’s MI6, ran a stunningly successful network of agents. He did this not while living in the sewers, or skulking in an attic, but hiding boldly in plain sight, as the pianist in the Cheka’s canteen.
A kindle single, SPYCRAFT REBOOTED. Short, obviously, but useful – it was a research purchase that got forgotten about and shuffled to the end of my queue, and then I needed it for research on a new idea.
Making people risk their lives, careers and reputation by handing over secrets entrusted to their charge is difficult, but the elements are straightforward. The acronym MICE (Money, Ideology, Coercion, Ego) is a handy way of remembering the main approaches.
Some of it is probably very obvious, and it’s written more as a primer than a specialist text, but there are handy perspectives and little nuggets like the above that have interest and utility. For a brief grounding in the relatively recent state of the art and fun anecdotes and facts, it’s very useful, especially if read in conjunction with HOW TO STAGE A COUP.
SPYCRAFT REBOOTED, Edward Lucas (link)