To look at spying rationally, the first thing to do is to not look at it with romantic mystique. Meeting people in a foggy, dark alley at night, who are going

To look at spying rationally, the first thing to do is to not look at it with romantic mystique. Meeting people in a foggy, dark alley at night, who are going to uncover the identity of a major agent - this makes for a suspenseful movie, but has little to do with national security. Most of what spying is is nations trying not to fall behind technologically. What is in the news? The Chinese spying on US technology. What happened in the past? The Pakistanis and Israelis and Russians using spying to not fall behind on nuclear technology. The Soviet Union's Directorate T was a huge part of the Soviet spy apparatus, all to catch up to certain aspects of the west technologically. You can also read the news stories about US spying with relations to Airbus. Blown agents, military secrets that can jeopardize a nation etc. all makes for high drama, but on a rational level things are more mundane.