Historically, the routine of espionage is generally directed to obtaining something (information) or neutralizing something (people or property) in the homeland or conquered territory of a particular enemy.
But it is also a culture of sorts wherein the end not only justifies the means, but also serves as a kind of furtive absolution wherein the proscribing character of espionage — at least in the eyes of the spy and his own country — is marginalized due to its ostensible importance to national survival.
This mindset was particularly well put in a 1775 letter of Nathan Hale who observed: “Every kind of service necessary to the public good becomes honorable by being necessary.”
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