Highlights of the volume include pioneering essays on the methodology of intelligence studies by Michael Fry and Miles Hochstein, and the future perils of the surveillance state by James Der Derian.

Two leading authorities on the history of Soviet/Russian intelligence, Christopher Andrew and Oleg Gordievsky, contribute essays on the final days of the KGB.

Also, the mythology surrounding the life of Second World War intelligence chief, Sir William Stephenson, The Man Called Intrepid, is penetrated in a persuasive revisionist account by Timothy Naftali.

The collection is rounded off by a series of essays devoted to unearthing the history of the Canadian intelligence service.