Pop culture is indispensable in educating the public on real-world spying. Viewing James Bond and Jason Bourne as the artifice of real spying is a departure point for more serious learning about the shadowy world of spying.
Because of the public’s perceptions of spying, I have struggled at times to inform different audiences on espionage in ways that would be educational but not dismissive of pop culture. I recently concluded that pop culture is the secret sauce. Spy fiction and spy films have become a tantalizing way-point for starting serious conversations about the real art of spying, especially when coupled with spy history, artifacts, and real spy stories.
In a provocative article, “How fake spies ruin real intelligence,” Amy Zegart made the point that “spies have always had a complicated relationship with fictional ones.”
True. My family will rarely watch a spy movie with me because unrealistic fictional depictions of spying make me cranky. Still, Zegart’s theme is important: There are hidden consequences when fictional spying substitutes for real spy depictions. As far as Zegart’s argument goes, policymakers and lawmakers are learning the wrong lessons from spy fiction. My antidote for this malady is education, and I see possibilities to offer opportunities for constructive learning about spying.
A spy fiction reference can artfully open the door for telling a real spy story.
In my role as executive director at the International Spy Museum, I address audiences about spying in combat zones knowing that the public’s perceptions of spying are grounded in fiction. 9/11 did usher in a more militarized way of gathering intelligence overseas, and those narratives are seldom shared. After all, as former CIA officer Marc Polymeropoulos observed, manhunting in places like Afghanistan is very different from more traditional espionage work. It’s also true that Hollywood doesn’t tell the stories about endless meetings with tribal leaders that seldom crescendo into a dramatic climax. But as an article on today’s spying concluded, “America needs the kind of spooks who can work the cocktail party circuit — more James Bond, less Jason Bourne.”
That kind of pop culture reference provides an opening to educate the public on both traditional and combat zone spying.
Wearing tuxedos in the spirit of a fictionalized James Bond does happen in the real spy world, and it’s not hard to see how appealing that image can be for the public. My predecessor at the International Spy Museum, Peter Earnest, a renowned CIA officer, was featured in a film telling his “real James Bond moment” when he wore a tuxedo and surreptitiously installed a listening device at a diplomatic party. After hearing that story, I realized disappointingly that I had no such narrative. I never did anything operational in a tuxedo.
That said, after some reflection, I realized that the work Peter and I did was more similar than different. Our objectives were the same: to recruit spies. The tradecraft was necessarily different in a combat zone, so it’s left up to me and other former intelligence officers to help the historians, curators, and educators to enlighten the public on the distinctions between combat zone and traditional spying.
Spy fiction and real spying are a creation of a shared cultural environment. So fictional characters like James Bond and Jason Bourne have become useful metaphors for telling true spy stories, including one of my post-9/11 spy stories: We didn’t wear tuxedos — instead, we wore body armor, carried long guns and pistols, had dedicated air support, and moved with our Afghan partners in rural Afghanistan. The story was more Jason Bourne and less James Bond. In the end, without much drama, we recruited spies. The tradecraft for that mission remains necessarily vague, but as the post-9/11 threat landscape evolved in combat zones, the difference from traditional intelligence operations came into sharper relief. Those narratives must be told alongside the tuxedo stories. Otherwise, misperceptions will persist.
Indeed, if Zegart is right and fiction is alarmingly the dominant source for informing the public, Congress, and policymakers on spying, then we should be concerned.
Unhesitatingly then, the International Spy Museum will continue to educate the public with its adult and youth programs, by telling real spy stories, airing SpyCast podcasts, showing artifacts, and moderating serious Spy Chats of pertinent global intelligence topics. We will continue to leverage the power of pop culture as another tool to educate the public on real-world spying. Rest assured that James Bond and Jason Bourne are and will continue to be part of the spy narrative. Both of these fictional characters are grounded in shaping a popular genre, and judging by the popularity of Bond movies, they’re here to stay. Therefore, it is to the advantage of former intelligence practitioners, historians, curators, and educators to capitalize on these fictional narratives to shed a little light on real spying.
Christopher P. Costa, the executive director of the International Spy Museum and a former career intelligence officer, was special assistant to the president and senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council from 2017 to 2018.
