Sun Tzu’s Doomed Spies

Double agents are one of the main issues in spycraft because, regardless of how competent your spies are, there is always the terrifying, albeit remote, possibility that they have defected and are now working for the enemy. The Art of War, a treatise on warfare published by the renowned Chinese strategist Sun Tzu in the 5th century BC, offers a number of very easy-to-follow strategies to resist this.

One of these was the "doomed spy," which involved acting in specific ways solely for the agents who could be lurking in your camp. It differed from the traditional double agent in that it required little effort to send the information you wanted the adversary to know, without having to go to the trouble of finding spies and persuading them to join your side because you never knew how many of them there are.

It is safe to state that many intelligence agencies still employ Sun Tzu's methods to develop their military strategies because they continue to be effective and are still applied in the field today. But once more, it wouldn't be a very effective strategy if we knew which ones they are.