Editing Counterintelligence (section)

== History ==
[[File:Great Game cartoon from 1878.jpg|thumb|Political cartoon depicting the Afghan [[Sher Ali Khan|Emir Sher Ali]] with his "friends" the [[Russian Bear]] and [[Lion|British Lion]] (1878). The [[Great Game]] saw the rise of systematic espionage and surveillance throughout the region by both powers]]
Modern tactics of espionage and dedicated government intelligence agencies developed over the course of the late-19th century. A key background to this development was the [[Great Game]] – the strategic rivalry and conflict between the British Empire and the Russian Empire throughout [[Central Asia]] between 1830 and 1895. To counter Russian ambitions in the region and the potential threat it posed to the British position in [[British India|India]], the [[Indian Civil Service]] built up a system of surveillance, intelligence and counterintelligence. The existence of this shadowy conflict was popularized in [[Rudyard Kipling]]'s famous [[espionage fiction|spy book]], ''[[Kim (novel)|Kim]]'' (1901), where he portrayed the Great Game (a phrase Kipling popularized) as an espionage and intelligence conflict that "never ceases, day or night".<ref>{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=D3KIwYA_QyAC|title= Intelligence and Government in Britain and the United States: A Comparative Perspective|author= Philip H.J. Davies|year= 2012|publisher= ABC-CLIO|isbn= 9781440802812}}</ref>

The establishment of dedicated intelligence and counterintelligence organizations had much to do with the colonial rivalries between the major European powers and to the accelerating development of military technology. As espionage became more widely used, it became imperative to expand the role of existing police and internal security forces into a role of detecting and countering foreign spies. The ''[[Evidenzbureau]]'' (founded in the [[Austrian Empire]] in 1850) had the role from the late-19th century of countering the actions of the [[Pan Slavism|Pan-Slavist movement]] operating out of [[Serbia]].

After the fallout from the [[Dreyfus affair]] of 1894–1906 in France, responsibility for French military counter-espionage passed in 1899 to the [[Sûreté générale]]—an agency originally responsible for order enforcement and public safety—and overseen by the [[Ministry of the Interior]].<ref>[http://www.aassdn.org/hsvEXhis01.html Anciens des Services Spéciaux de la Défense Nationale] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160315005343/http://aassdn.org/hsvEXhis01.html |date=2016-03-15 }} ( France )</ref>

[[Image:Okhranka group photo.jpg|thumb|left|300px|The [[Okhrana]], founded in 1880, had the task of countering enemy espionage against [[Imperial Russia]]. St. Petersburg Okhrana group photo, 1905]]
The [[Okhrana]]<ref>"Okhrana" literally means "the guard"</ref> initially formed in 1880 to combat political terrorism and left-wing revolutionary activity throughout the [[Russian Empire]], was also tasked with countering enemy espionage.<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9056920/Okhranka#275729.hook Okhrana] ''Britannica Online''</ref> Its main concern was the activities of revolutionaries, who often worked and plotted subversive actions from abroad. It set up a branch in [[Paris]], run by [[Pyotr Rachkovsky]], to monitor their activities. The agency used many methods to achieve its goals, including [[covert operations]], [[undercover agent]]s, and "perlustration"—the interception and reading of private correspondence. The Okhrana became notorious for its use of [[agent provocateur|agents provocateurs]], who often succeeded in penetrating the activities of revolutionary groups – including the [[Bolsheviks]].<ref>[[Ian D. Thatcher]], Late Imperial Russia: problems and prospects, page 50.</ref>

Integrated counterintelligence agencies run directly by governments were also established. The British government founded the [[Secret Intelligence Service|Secret Service Bureau]] in 1909 as the first independent and interdepartmental agency fully in control over all government counterintelligence activities.

Due to intense lobbying from [[William Melville]] and after he obtained German mobilization plans and proof of their financial support to the [[Boer]]s, the British government authorized the formation of a new intelligence section in the [[War Office]], MO3 (subsequently redesignated MO5) headed by Melville, in 1903. Working under-cover from a flat in London, Melville ran both counterintelligence and foreign intelligence operations, capitalizing on the knowledge and foreign contacts he had accumulated during his years running [[Special Branch (Metropolitan Police)|Special Branch]].

Due to its success, the Government Committee on Intelligence, with support from [[Richard Haldane]] and [[Winston Churchill]], established the Secret Service Bureau in 1909 as a joint initiative of the [[British Admiralty|Admiralty]], the [[War Office]] and the [[Foreign Office]] to control secret intelligence operations in the UK and overseas, particularly concentrating on the activities of the [[Imperial Germany|Imperial German]] government. Its first director was [[Mansfield Smith-Cumming|Captain Sir George Mansfield Smith-Cumming]] alias "C".<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.sis.gov.uk/output/sis-or-mi6-what-s-in-a-name.html |title= SIS Or MI6. What's in a Name? |work= SIS website |access-date= 11 July 2008 |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080926133058/http://www.sis.gov.uk/output/sis-or-mi6-what-s-in-a-name.html |archive-date= 26 September 2008 }}</ref> The [[Secret Intelligence Service|Secret Service Bureau]] was split into a foreign and counter-intelligence domestic service in 1910. The latter, headed by Sir [[Vernon Kell]], originally aimed at calming public fears of large-scale German espionage.<ref>Christopher Andrew, ''The Defence of the Realm: The Authorized History of Mi5'' (London, 2009), p.21.</ref> As the Service was not authorized with police powers, Kell liaised extensively with the [[Special Branch]] of [[Scotland Yard]] (headed by [[Basil Thomson]]), and succeeded in disrupting the work of Indian revolutionaries collaborating with the Germans during the war. Instead of a system whereby rival departments and military services would work on their own priorities with little to no consultation or cooperation with each other, the newly established [[Secret Intelligence Service]] was interdepartmental, and submitted its intelligence reports to all relevant government departments.<ref>
{{cite book
|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=9TXJAwAAQBAJ
|title= Empire of Secrets: British Intelligence, the Cold War, and the Twilight of Empire
|author= Calder Walton|year= 2013
|publisher= Overlook|pages = 5–6
|isbn= 9781468310436
}}
</ref> For the first time, governments had access to peacetime, centralized independent intelligence and counterintelligence bureaucracy with indexed registries and defined procedures, as opposed to the more ''[[ad hoc]]'' methods used previously.

In Soviet [[East Germany]], offensive counterespionage methods were targeted against civilians and were referred to as [[Zersetzung|decomposition]] methods. They were used to debilitate individuals and groups for the purposes of stopping political dissent and culturally incorrect actions.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Schmeidel |first1=John Christian |title=Stasi: Sword and Shield of the Party |date=2008 |publisher=Routledge |location=Abingdon |isbn=978-0-203-01841-5 |chapter=Origins and developments of the East German secret police: Disruptions and breakouts}}</ref> Decomposition methods were used extensively and became the main form of Stasi repression in the 1970's and up until the collapse of the state in 1990.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Dennis |first1=Mike |title=The Stasi: Myth and Reality |date=2003 |publisher=Pearson Education Limited |isbn=0582414229 |page=112 |chapter=Tackling the enemy: quiet repression and preventive decomposition}}</ref> They were also used in the Soviet Union more widely including as support for repeated acts of intellectual property theft.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ellis |first1=Frank |title=From Glasnost to the Internet: Russia's New Infosphere |date=1999 |publisher=Palgrave MacMillain |location=Basingstoke |isbn=978-1-349-27078-1 |page=37 |chapter=Information Deficit}}</ref>