The Ethical Spy: An Oxymoron?

By Susan Robertson

At first glance, applying the concept of ethics to espionage seems oxymoronic. Spying is after all a realm in which, as former CIA director William Colby observed, honorable men do dishonorable things in the service of their country. How can there be ethical shadings to assassinating a tyrannical dictator or a known terrorist? Outside war, how can deliberate killing not be murder? Where is the morality in suborning someone to betray his country? What values align with renditioning a terror suspect to a country for torture by proxy? In Fair Play: The Moral Dilemmas of Spying, James M. Olson, senior lecturer at the Bush School of Government and Public Service and former chief of counterintelligence at the CIA, examines a broad range of such dilemmas — at a time when few officials in any branch of government are eager to draw public attention to what really goes on in the shadowy world of espionage and intelligence.

During Olson’s 31 years of clandestine service, he came to realize how little ethical guidance case officers received as they oversaw networks of agents. In his book, he surveys that tangle of moral and ethical standards. Unlike many who support absolute covertness in such matters, Olson favors basing intelligence activities on American attitudes and values. In the foreword of his book, he suggests that “public awareness must be raised before the country can have a well-informed, serious and nonpartisan debate on the moral dilemmas of spying.”

Olson now highlights these ethical issues for students in his courses on intelligence and national security because he believes that having a clear set of moral and ethical standards is essential for anyone in public service. His students not only have benefited from his personal experiences in the often shadowy world of intelligence but have also had a unique opportunity to comment publicly on several difficult ethical situations by assisting Olson in his writing.

Spying is after all a realm in which, as former CIA director William Colby observed, honorable men do dishonorable things in the service of their country.

Fair Play is based on a broadly framed survey research model. After devising 50 real-life operational scenarios from his CIA career and intelligence history, Olson solicited judgments on the morality of each scenario from various active and former intelligence officers, academics at Texas A&M and other universities, and A&M students, including master’s students in international affairs at the Bush School. The survey included controversial topics and practices such as assassination, torture, seduction, rendition, suborning and interfering in foreign politics. These comments bolstered Olson’s hypothesis that Americans in the broadest sense should be aware of how intelligence services operate and should be involved in establishing moral limits. Olson says the intelligence community can achieve this ideal without revealing specifics that might compromise security, and he cites Bush School students’ views as proof that Americans desire such involvement.

“I found,” Olson says, “that knowing how these future public servants, many of whom one day will be working in national-security jobs, analyzed the moral dilemmas I outlined was invaluable. Their thoughtful comments reinforced my belief that the American people can and should contribute to this important national debate. Seeing students engage in this difficult topic bolstered my confidence in our country’s future and says a lot about the quality of the public servants we are educating here at the Bush School.”