How Spying Is Just Like Sex
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Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) -- The uproar in Europe over spying bythe U.S. National Security Agency has led to calls for a treatyor code of conduct to limit espionage. To understand why this isnaive, imagine a treaty to ban sex. It would be honored in thebreach. States, too, have an overwhelming natural impulse: tospy.
Spying is (or was until Edward Snowden) largely covert; noone freely admits to doing it. It is also one of the lastpreserves of the absolute sovereign, unconstrained by law --think Louis XIV in a trench coat. This is one reason why thereare international laws for trade, travel and warfare, but almostnone governing espionage, except the one that allows spies to beshot if captured in civilian clothes.