The Spy Who Loved Re....alism (yeah that was bad)

The Spy Museum was an enlightening experience.  It was interesting to take a walk through of the history of espionage.  The US has come a long way from our first encounters with this tactic.  Seeing our successes (U-2 planes find nuclear missiles in Cuba in 1962), and our failures (Francis Gary Powers being shot down and captured by the Soviet Union during a spy mission in 1960) really makes me wonder how the course of history may have been changed had we not taken advantage of this powerful method of intelligence.  What would President Obama, or generals fighting in Afghanistan use in their decision making deliberations if the CIA weren't constantly seeking out any new sources of information from spies on the ground in strategic areas across the world (although, in the case of the former president, perhaps he should have disregarded some of his intelligence)?  The intelligence industry is, in my opinion, one of our nation's greatest treasures that no one really ever thinks about, but yet, they're always watching out even if we're not.

The notion of states spying on one another is not a particularly new concept, but it has exponentially increased in recent decades, with the increased tensions between the US and the Soviet Union during the early-to-mid stages of the Cold War.  The Cold War, and its impact on foreign policies of states during that period can obviously be associated with our discussions about realism.  Realism seeks to promote the state's main focus (in their opinion): security.  The nuclear arms race, the feeling of nuclear war around every corner, and the relative silence of the United Nations during a lot of it seem to accurately portray the realist point of view on international relations (it can be argued, however, that some classical realists feel there should have been more than two major states/powers in the Cold War for it to truly portray the realist perspective).  The notion of survival of the fittest, that only one of the states, and thus, one ideology, will survive in the end would seem to breed such advantage-seeking tactics such as espionage.  It's worth noting, however, that beginning with the detente foreign policy between the US and the USSR in the 1970s, the dominant foreign policy mindset has moved away from realism and towards liberalism.  It makes me wonder, then, if spying is thus in decline, seeing that espionage seems to be at least partially synonymous with realism.  Liberalism, however, also seeks to promote the self-interest of a state, so as long as power is in a state's agenda, spying is a tactic worth holding onto.


Also, this is for Erin, The Father of Modern Realism indeed (I couldn't find the one with the caption on it :()