Why Spy?

Catalog description

Why spy? Spying has long been an important part of how countries relate to each other and defend themselves. But why do they do it? This course will approach this question from several different perspectives by reading stories of Cold War espionage (both fiction and nonfiction). We will examine it at a national level, asking what role intelligence plays in countries’ foreign policy and international relations. We will examine it at a personal level, asking why people choose to join their countries’ intelligence services, and why some people choose to spy on their own countries for foreign governments. We will also pose it skeptically, asking how we ought to think about morality and immorality in a world full of deception. Along the way, we will also consider bigger questions that the world of spy craft poses for our everyday lives and in relationship to Western thought. What is the role of knowledge and information in decision-making? What level of uncertainty and risk are we willing to accept when making big decisions? How can we trust that what we know is true?