A Spy’s Guide to Working With People You Don’t – and Can’t – Trust
In the world of intelligence, trust is often an operational myth. While other professions thrive on collaboration, esprit de corps, and long-term loyalty, espionage is built on calculated manipulation, conditional cooperation, and engineered distrust. Intelligence professionals are frequently compelled to work with individuals they neither trust nor can ever fully trust—and must do so with precision, detachment, and strategic foresight.
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Available as an ebook HERE
This paradox lies at the heart of modern intelligence work. In this week’s A Spy’s Guide To, we deeply examine the psychological, operational, and strategic implications of working with the untrustworthy—from dangerous sources and unreliable allies to duplicitous informants and rival intelligence officers. This guide explains how trust is managed, distorted, and weaponised in intelligence, while offering lessons for navigating similarly toxic dynamics in broader professional environments.