A Brief History of Espionage in Statecraft

Information is power. If you set a trap for your adversary, apart from good planning, the trap’s success rests solely upon your ability to keep its existence secret. This power exists, however, only so long as the information remains a secret, or until the trap is sprung. The loss of secrets presupposes the loss of the power they create. This may be why power can be so intoxicating, and why secrets are so important to those who conceal and protect them.

Equally so, true and correct information is vital to the healthy function of a free and open democratic society. In such a society, citizens determine its course. For the members of such a society to make informed decisions about their governance they must have access to as much timely and relevant information as possible. This necessarily includes information that may be uncomfortable, undesirable, or objectionable. When the government conceals or distorts information, it drastically affects the ability of an otherwise informed citizenry to make rational decisions. These two powerful forces are antithetical. There must then be a balance between the need for transparency in a true democracy, and the need for secrecy in the interests of national security.

Sun Tzu was a revered Chinese general, writer, philosopher, and shrewd military strategist who lived during the Eastern Zhou period between 771 and 256 BC. Historians generally credit him with authoring the seminal work of military strategy, “The Art of War.” Its teachings have been studied, followed, and implemented by military thinkers throughout history for close to two thousand five hundred years. This timeless text employs logic, cunning, and brilliant yet simple tactics to engage an enemy.  It emphasizes the importance of strategic planning, psychological warfare, adaptability, efficiency, and knowledge of the enemy.

Of all weapons, espionage is arguably the most powerful tool of war. “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.”^[i]  “Hence the use of spies, of whom there are five classes: local spies, inward spies, converted spies, doomed spies, and surviving spies. When these five kinds of spies are all at work, none can discover the secret system. This is called ‘divine manipulation of the threads.’ It is the sovereign’s most precious faculty.”^[ii] Furthermore, “What enables the wise sovereign and the good general to strike and conquer, and achieve things beyond the reach of ordinary men, is foreknowledge.”^[iii]

Though brilliant, Sun Tzu was certainly not the first to advocate the use of espionage in warfare. History is replete with examples of secrecy giving advantage in times of conflict. The Pharaohs of Egypt used spies to gather information about their enemies and monitor disloyal subjects. In 1274 BC, Ramses II led his army against the Hittites in the now-infamous Battle of Kadesh.^[iv] The battle ensued after Ramses II learned of a plot by the Hittites to draw his forces away from the city and ambush the weakened Egyptian contingent.

Before the battle, the Hittite King Muwatalli II deployed two purported “defectors” who convinced Ramses II that the Hittites were not where he believed they were. They persuaded him to move his army to (what he believed to be) a favorable location near the City of Kadesh.^[v] Though briefly fooled by the “defectors,” Ramses II soon learned of their deception. He sent two scouts of his own to determine the true location of the Hittite army. By accounts, the Egyptian scouts captured two of their Hittite counterparts and “interrogated” them. (It is more likely they were tortured). Under what one might call, “extreme duress,” the Hittite scouts revealed the true location of the Hittite army. They were not far away as the “defectors” claimed, but lying in wait near Kadesh to ambush the Egyptians.^[vi]

Rameses II learned of the deception just in time. He managed to recall his scattered army before the Hittite attack. Ramses II personally led a counterattack against the Hittite forces before reinforcements could arrive. Ramses II survived, and the Egyptians ultimately prevailed – but at great cost. Far from a rout, the Egyptian victory nonetheless cemented Ramses II’s reputation as a brilliant, military strategist.

In 218 B.C.E., during the second Punic War, Hannibal Barca led the Carthaginian army across the Alps to invade Roman territory. The Romans were entirely unprepared for the invasion because they believed traversing the Alps was impossible. Concealment of the route, surprise, and innovative battle techniques led to Hannibal’s overwhelming Roman defenses.^[vii]

Genghis Khan feigned retreats to lure his enemies to defeat. Simulating withdrawal, his Mongol army would attack with surprise and precision once his enemies were disorganized and scattered. Khan based his military strategy on five key principles: “…speed, suddenness, ferocity, variety of tactics, and iron discipline.”^[viii] Maintaining the secrecy of his plans was key to his many victories.

The Persians too were no strangers to espionage. During the Achaemenid Empire, which existed between 550 and 330 BC, the Persians used sophisticated encryption methods to prevent the interception of messages. They coupled this encryption with a highly efficient system of couriers known as the Angarium.^[ix] They chose couriers for their unflinching loyalty, reliability, and bravery. These couriers, elite equestrians, carried encrypted messages to their destinations swiftly and stealthily along the Royal Road and other established trade routes.

History provides at least one notable example of how this trusted system worked against the Persians. In 480 BC, a loyal Spartan named Demaratus exiled to the Persian Empire, learned of Persia’s plans to invade Greece.^[x] Desiring to alert his beloved countrymen, Demaratus transmitted a secret message to Sparta detailing Xerxes’ plan to invade. Demaratus scraped the wax from two, wooden tablets, and then inscribed the invasion plans into the wood. When finished, he replaced the wax, leaving the inscription hidden beneath. He then transmitted the folding tablets to Sparta via a trusted courier from the Angarium. The tablets perplexed Leonidas. However, lore credits Leonidas’ wife Gorgo with suggesting they scrape off the wax. The rest, as they say, is history.^[xi]

     Like the Persians, the Romans employed various forms of espionage to accomplish their military goals. Initially created to administer the empire’s military grain supplies, the Emperor Trajan charged them as couriers for the empire.^[xii] Later, during the 2nd century, the frumentarii evolved into an early form of intelligence agency.  They were characterized later in history as couriers “in constant movement.”[xiii]

During the Middle Ages, secret societies such as the Knights Templar and the Assassins (Hashashin) played significant roles in political and military affairs[xiv]. These groups often operated clandestinely, using codes, secret symbols, and covert operations to achieve their objectives.[xv] The Knights Templar, for instance, were rumored to possess vast amounts of secret knowledge, including information about hidden treasures and sacred relics.[xvi] The secrecy surrounding their activities made them powerful but also vulnerable to suspicion and persecution.[xvii] In 1307, the Templars were famously arrested en masse by King Philip IV of France. Many were executed or imprisoned, accused of heresy and other crimes, partly due to the mysterious nature of their operations.[xviii]

Niccolò Machiavelli, the Renaissance political philosopher, wrote extensively about the use of secrecy in statecraft.[xix] In “The Prince,” Machiavelli argued that rulers must often conceal their true intentions and use deception to maintain power.[xx] He suggested successful leaders must be both cunning like a fox and strong like a lion, implying the necessity of secrecy and strategic manipulation. “[I]t is necessary for a prince to understand how to use both natures; and that one without the other is useless. The lion cannot protect himself from traps, and the fox cannot defend himself from wolves. One must therefore be a fox to recognize traps and a lion to frighten wolves.”[xxi] Machiavelli’s work reflects the pervasive belief during the Renaissance that secrecy was essential for political stability and success.

Sophisticated spy networks also arose during the Elizabethan Era in England.[xxii] Queen Elizabeth I’s spymaster, Sir Francis Walsingham, created a vast intelligence network to protect the realm from Catholic plots and foreign threats.[xxiii] He employed several methods to conduct operations including secret agents, coded messages, and informants.[xxiv] His network of spies uncovered a plot to assassinate the Queen and place Mary, Queen of Scots, in her place.[xxv] Many English Catholics believed even then that Mary was the true heir to the throne of England. Nonetheless, history reflects that the plot was unsuccessful, and Mary lost her head.

Undesired consequences often result when state secrets, especially secrets of a military nature, come to an untimely light. Thus, maintaining sensitive secrets logically necessitates a formal, regulatory framework designed to prevent the unwanted dissemination of secret information.

One of the first attempts to do so was in India during the 4^th century B.C.E. Kautilya’s “Arthashastra,” an ancient treatise on politics, economics, military strategy, state function, and social organization generally attributed to the Indian Prime Minister “Kautilya,” was one of the first written texts to specifically define state secrecy as a necessary element of governance.^[xxvi]

Among other things, it required that, “[t]he subject matter of a council shall be entirely secret and deliberations in it shall be so carried that even birds cannot see them; for it is said that the secrecy of counsels was divulged by parrots, minas, dogs and other low creatures of mean birth. Hence, without providing himself with sufficient safeguards against disclosure, he shall never enter into deliberations in a council.”^[xxvii] And, “[w]hoever discloses counsels shall be torn to pieces.”^[xxviii]

The Arthashastra is one of the first examples of a formal legal code to specifically address the maintenance of secrecy and the punitive consequences of compromising it. It codifies the roles of spies and informants, methods for protecting state intelligence, and penalties for revealing state secrets.^[xxix]

The cornerstone of Roman treason law during the 1^st century B.C.E. was the Lex Julia De Maiestatis.^[xxx] Generally attributed to Julius Caesar, the Lex Julia De Maiestatis, also known as the “Law of the Majestas,” or the “law concerning treason,” defined crimes against the Roman State and the Emperor, including treason, communicating with the enemy and desertion.^[xxxi] The Emperor Tiberius exploited the law to solidify power and curb dissent. Initially limited to military application, Tiberius expanded the law to include offenses such as speaking against the emperor and conspiring with dissidents. Eventually, Tiberius simply employed the law to eliminate those he found undesirable.^[xxxii]

“The Council of Ten,” or Consiglio Dei Dieci, was an incarnation of the 14^th Century Venetian Republic. The “Great Council of Venice” created The Council of Ten, to suppress a conspiracy to wrest power from the Great Council’s then-dominant faction.^[xxxiii] The Council of Ten was to exist for only a short period, but after an attempted coup in 1355, the Council of Ten became permanently established.^[xxxiv] It controlled the secret police and espionage in Venice.^[xxxv] The Council of Ten operated under a set of formalized statutes and rules that defined its composition, power, and operation.^[xxxvi]

In 1351, during the reign of King Edward III, England enacted the “Great Statute of Treasons.”^[xxxvii] This statute defined the crime of “high treason” for the first time and is one of the oldest English laws still in force.^[xxxviii] Though the law has been revised many times over the last 672 years, it prohibits, among other things, “[c]ompassing the Death of the King, Queen, or their eldest Son; violating the Queen, or the King’s eldest Daughter unmarried, or his eldest Son’s Wife; levying War; adhering to the King’s Enemies;” and, “killing the Chancellor, Treasurer, or Judges in Execution of their Duty.”^[xxxix]

Espionage took early root in the New World. Before America declared its hard-fought independence from England, the Culper Spy Ring gathered intelligence for the Continental Army.[xl] These spies operated under the direct command of General George Washington and utilized several methods to conduct their secret activities, including coded messages, invisible ink, and dead drops. Their secret operations were key to America’s victory over the crown.

The spy ring’s most famous accomplishment was exposing Benedict Arnold.[xli] It intercepted messages between Arnold and Major John Andre’, ultimately revealing the conspiracy to surrender West Point to the British.[xlii] Once discovered, Arnold fled to England. He died broke in London on June 14, 1801. His infamous name lives on as a synonym for “traitor.”

During the American Civil War, the North and the South both used spies, codes, and ciphers to maintain the confidentiality of military secrets.[xliii] The Confederate cipher system used complex polyalphabetic ciphers to secure military orders and intelligence.[xliv]

World War I saw the rise of modern intelligence agencies like Britain’s MI5 and MI6 as well as the United States’ Office of Naval Intelligence. The formation of these agencies formalized the practice of espionage. The war brought to bear the need to maintain military secrets, which led to the development of increasingly sophisticated encryption methods and the widespread use of codebooks.

Secrecy in statecraft is inarguably necessary for the continued functioning of a viable nation-state. As our ancestors knew well, this is even truer in times of war. Whether to protect the development of new weapons, secret war plans, the location of military and strategic assets, or any other information that might tip the advantage, wartime secrets are crucial to a state’s long-term survival.

Underpinning the need for secrecy are key philosophical, ethical, and moral dilemmas. For example, how do we balance national security interests with the need for public transparency in a constitutional democracy? How do we ensure oversight without compromising national security? How much of our privacy are we willing to sacrifice in the name of national security? How much transparency is warranted when agents of our government employ unethical or immoral tactics to achieve their clandestine, sometimes nefarious, ends?

[i] Sun Tzu, “The Art of War,” Chapter 3: Attack by Stratagem.

[ii] Sun Tzu, The Art of War, Chapter 13: The Attack by Fire.

[iii] Id.

[iv] Kitchen, K. A. (1982). Pharaoh Triumphant: The Life and Times of Ramesses II, King of Egypt. Aris & Phillips.

[v] Kadesh was an ancient, fortified city near the Orontes River in what is now modern-day Syria. Situated in the middle of trade routes between Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Levant, Kadesh played an important role in ancient politics due to its strategic location.

[vi] https://www.worldhistory.org/Battle_of_Kadesh/

[vii] https://www.britannica.com/event/Second-Punic-War

[viii] https://deremilitari.org/2014/06/the-art-of-war-under-chinggis-qahan-genghis-khan/

[ix] Pierre Briant, “From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire” (2002).

[x] Deborah Boedecker, “The Two Faces of Demaratus,” Arethusa, Vol. 20, No. 1/2 (Spring and fall 1987), pp. 185-201; See also, Herodotus, “Histories,” Book 7, Chapter 239-240.

[xi] Id.

[xii] https://www.tastesofhistory.co.uk/post/rome-s-secret-agents

[xiii] Id.

[xiv] Nicholson, Helen, “The Knights Templar: A New History,” Sutton Publishing, 2001.

[xv] Id.

[xvi] Barber, Malcolm, “The New Knighthood: A History of the Order of the Temple,” Cambridge University Press, 1994.

[xvii] Id.

[xviii] Id.

[xix] Machiavelli, Niccolò, “The Prince,” translated by Peter Bondanella, Oxford University Press, 2005.

[xx] Id., Chapter XVIII, “”Concerning the Way in Which Princes Should Keep Faith.”

[xxi] Id.

[xxii] Alford, Stephen, “The Watchers: A Secret History of the Reign of Elizabeth I,” Bloomsbury, 2012.

[xxiii] Id.

[xxiv] Id.

[xxv] Id., Chapter 12: “The Babington Plot.”

[xxvi] https://www.worldhistory.org/Arthashastra/

[xxvii] The Arthashastra, Book XV, “The Plan of a Treatise, Chapter XV, “The Business of Council Meetings.”

[xxviii] Id.

[xxix] Id.

[xxx] Allison, J. E., and J. D. Cloud. “The Lex Julia Maiestatis.” Latomus, vol. 21, no. 4, 1962, pp. 711–31. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41524724.

[xxxi] Id.

[xxxii] https://cr.middlebury.edu/bulgakov/public_html/Tiberius.html

[xxxiii] https://www.britannica.com/place/Italy/Venice-in-the-14th-century#ref318497

[xxxiv] Id.

[xxxv] Id.

[xxxvi] https://historywalksvenice.com/venetian-story/the-venetian-constitution/

[xxxvii] https://beta.nationalarchives.gov.uk/explore-the-collection/stories/the-treason-act/

[xxxviii] Id.

[xxxix] https://www.legislation.gov.uk/aep/Edw3Stat5/25/2

[xl] Kilmeade, Brian, and Don Yaeger, “George Washington’s Secret Six: The Spy Ring That Saved the American Revolution,” Sentinel, 2013.

[xli] Id., Chapter 7.

[xlii] Id.

[xliii] Kahn, David, “The Codebreakers: The Comprehensive History of Secret Communication from Ancient Times to the Internet,” Scribner, 1996.

[xliv] Id.