Author(s): Helmut MÜLLER-ENBERGS
Publication name: Romanian Intelligence Studies Review
Publisher name: Mihai Viteazul National Intelligence Academy
Publication type: Journal article
Publication date: June 30, 2023
Pagination:
Issue/ Volume: 1 (29)/2023
DOI:
Abstract:
Though the interest in the motivation behind intelligence work is great, hardly
any empirical investigations have been published. This may be due to the subject itself
being difficult to research. Intelligence services, secret police and the police hardly report
openly on such matters, especially considering their reluctance to expose their
conspiratorial personnel in academic investigations. Included in the findings published by
“experts” are mostly testimonials and evaluations from criminal proceedings involving
informers, which, under empirical aspects, hardly lead to valid results. The group of
defendants poses only an exposed minority, presumably aware of its advantage in criminal
law, and consequently unlikely to venture more “primitive” motives. The greater number
of testimonials, mostly communist and post-communist memoirs, is similarly unhelpful
since the former agents, messengers or spies emphasise their ideals as motivation. In
contrast, the confidants tending towards materialism report less openly about the
structure of their motivation.
Keywords: Ministry for State Security, agents, scouts, spies, unofficial
collaborators, motivation.
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