HIS 2076 Spies and Secret Agents: Espionage in The 20th Century
This course exmines the history of espionage in the United States, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, Germany, and Israel throughout the twentieth century and holds that such an investigation into the world of spies and secret agents opens up the "secret diaries" of these nations and reveals a great deal about not only the true nature of their governments, but also their value systems. The course further investigates how the CIA, NSA, MI-5, MI-6 Cheka, KGB, Mossad and other secret government agencies around the world struggled to balance their needs to maintain secrecy and provide reliable intelligence for government leaders and policy makers with public accountability. By probing into these tensions, the course will add to the continuing debate on the propriety, utility, effectiveness, and accountability of intelligence activities in modern societies. It will also look at covert operations as a major tool for furthering foreign policy goals and objectives with particular attentiion to the Cold War conflilct as will as to the more recent 'War on Terror."