I think that's the dangerous part of kicking out diplomats/spies. They offer insight and backchannels between unfriendly states or states with very strained ti

I think that's the dangerous part of kicking out diplomats/spies. They offer insight and backchannels between unfriendly states or states with very strained ties. Somewhat counter intuitively, we do need spies in high enough positions to know what the counter party is thinking (obviously on both sides), so eliminating this kid of spy is counter productive (as opposed to industrial and technology spies who serve a different purpose).