On April 13, 2023, Norway expelled 15 Russian diplomats for alleged espionage, as reported by multiple news sources, including the BBC. About two weeks earlier, US journalist Evan Gershkovich was arrested in Russia on espionage charges. Before that incident, Iran had sentenced a Belgian aid worker to 40 years in prison on espionage charges as was reported by Reuters on January 10, 2023.
Espionage is the act of gathering secret or confidential information from a government or organization without authorization, typically by covert methods. Every country considers espionage a serious offense and imposes severe penalties, including imprisonment and fines.
Why do countries resort to espionage? Why don’t they just ask the country concerned for the information they are looking for? Imagine this scenario: Country A asks Country B, “Please let us know how many hypersonic missiles you have acquired secretly”. Country B answers, “We have stockpiled only 20 hypersonic missiles. Thanks for asking.” See! It’s so easy, there is no need for espionage! You can always ask for the information directly and get the answer. But wait, what’s the guarantee that Country B has given the right information? Maybe it has actually 100 hypersonic missiles in its possession, or maybe it doesn’t have any at all, it is just making it up to frighten Country A and gain some bargaining power over it. How can Country A trust Country B? Yes, trust is the ultimate concern in building understanding and relationships. When trust is absent, there is skepticism, suspicion, and doubt. If governments could trust each other, there wouldn’t be any need for espionage, there wouldn’t be any hostility between nations.
There is a famous quote from James Jesus Angleton. Angleton was the chief of the Counterintelligence Staff of the CIA from 1954 to 1975. The quote is, “Deception is a state of mind and the mind of the state.” We can define deception as the act of deliberately misleading or manipulating people or organizations by presenting false information, hiding the truth, twisting the facts, etc. in order to influence their beliefs or behavior. Angleton had seen a lot of government activities and behaviors in the cold war period so his words could be accepted as authentic. If deception is the mind of the state, then there cannot be trust among the governments. When trust is broken through deception, it can be difficult to repair it and it can have long-term effects on relationships and interactions between the governments concerned. If governments adopt and maintain consistent, transparent, and ethical policies towards each other and do not indulge in clandestine activities, espionage, deception, etc. then they can eventually build trust and bring peace on earth. The cost of distrust and suspicion among governments is huge. Every year countries are spending billions of dollars on military build-up, arms race, weapons development, etc. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) estimated the global military expenditure in 2022 as $2.24 trillion. That’s a staggering amount!
Trust is also essential at individual levels. Without trust relationships and bonding cannot grow among individuals. Trust is fundamental to human relationships and interactions. It stimulates communication and cooperation and establishes mutual respect and understanding. One has to possess certain virtues like reliability, integrity, and honesty to attain trust. Trust is a prerequisite for friendship.
The importance of trust in conjugal life can’t be overemphasized. Trust brings conjugal partners closer to each other and strengthens love, empathy, and respect between them. Couples with mutual trust live a healthy and fulfilling conjugal life. But if they don’t trust each other or the trust is broken by one of them, their relationship will be fraught with conflicts and confrontations, and it will fall apart and eventually end. Or, they may continue to live together for the sake of their children or society or financial reasons but that would be a living hell.
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This article was published in the Daily Sun on May 19, 2023. Please read the full article here or here.