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Should spies take on the job of diplomats?
There are good reasons why spooks and diplomats operate in different spheres, even if the US is blurring the lines of late with its missions for the CIA chief
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CIA director William Burns was called to head two high-profile diplomatic missions, to Moscow and Beijing, in the past two years.
PHOTO: AFP
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For over a century, the prevailing opinion of most Western governments was that the professions of spying and diplomacy should be kept separate.
Of course, spies and diplomats are recruited and expected to work for the same government. And needless to say, the information they acquire is shared across government departments. Furthermore, there were previous occasions when spies acted as diplomats or carried out what would traditionally be regarded as diplomatic missions.
