Ghanima Atreides (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
atreideslioness) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomhigh2016-04-13 08:25 am
atreideslioness) wrote in fandomhigh2016-04-13 08:25 am
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Diplomacy, Relationships, & Tactics: The Art of War, Week 14 [Wednesday, Period 2]
"Well, you made it all the way through to the last chapter of the book," Tahiri said with a wry smile. "Congratulations. This is the chapter where Sun Tzu talks about something that people may consider dishonorable or unacceptable for discussion, but they're probably making use of anyway because they're actually pretty necessary when it comes to warfare. Namely, spies."
"Spies are lovely," Ghanima said cheerfully. "Generally clever people -- since stupid ones don't survive long -- incredibly loyal, despite what the media would have you think, and wonderfully resourceful."
Were your ears burning somewhere, Aly? Ghanima hoped so.
"Even if they can occasionally be a pain to deal with," Tahiri added with a grin, and it was clearly a fond one but she wasn't going to elaborate any further since she had a certain future X-Wing pilot in mind. Not that he was in the class, but still. "They're versatile, too. I've done my share of infiltration missions, but that's not even in the same league."
Also she didn't have the patience for it.
"While I am quite adept at manipulation and subterfuge, I lack the temperament -- and ability to blend in -- that a spy requires," Ghanima admitted bluntly. She tended to view things in a much longer game than one where the spies were players. "Now, There are five types of spies," she stated, turning to write on the board:
(1) Local spies (2) inward spies (3) converted spies
(4) doomed spies (5) surviving spies.
"When you have these working together properly, it is your greatest resource, greater than munitions or soldiers or generals. Information, as always, is the most powerful weapon of all."
Tahiri picked up from there, and paced a few steps in either direction with her hands behind her back while she talked. "Why is that, exactly? Resources, basically. War is expensive, and people do have physical and mental limits. You don't send a thousand troops into a situation blind, then put everything on hold to rethink your strategy, when sending one person ahead of time to assess the situation will do. Being prepared is generally the smarter course. Having to make up everything as you go along can be exhausting, and it's riskier, too, when you're dragging other people along with you."Hawke.
"All spies, however, are not created equal," Ghanima stated. "Having local spies means employing the services of the inhabitants of a district, usually to help you detect localized troop movements and to be aware of changes in terrain. Having inward spies means you are making use of officials of the enemy. My personal favorite are the converted spies, getting hold of the enemy's spies and using them for our own purposes."
Ghanima beamed at the class. "Subversion of a loyalist is always so entertaining."
"Quite the feat, too." Tahiri gave up on hiding an amused smirk after about 1.5 seconds. (She supposed she qualified as one of those, technically.) "That said, bear in mind that when you're dealing with deception, you're -- like in last week's lesson -- playing with fire. Your spies are the last people you want to tick off."
"They do know everything that you know. Or at least, they know what you know they know, and probably more besides," Ghanima agreed. "There's a reason that Tzu said 'None should be more liberally rewarded. In no other business should greater secrecy be preserved.'"
"Confidentiality tends to be an important factor in a lot of business dealings, too," Tahiri said, "for more or less the same reason. Companies don't really want to share the secret of how they've got an edge. Get the right kind of knowledge about something or someone and you have some degree of power over them. Personal secrets, the data on their computer, the list goes on."
"For which you have the final categories of spies: there's the 'doomed spies'. Some squeamish generals try to avoid this grouping, but they are indispensable to a solid victory. Having doomed spies, doing certain things openly for purposes of deception, and allows our spies to know of them and report them to the enemy. This is especially vital to situations where you need to manipulate someone to move in a particular way."
"Surviving spies, finally, are those who bring back news from inside the enemy's camp. To have the deepest, darkest, blackmail material possible, you must deploy your doomed spies and your surviving spies, and use the combination to bring back to you the things of most vital importance."
Tahiri nodded. "If any of this sounds uncomfortable . . . Well, that's why being in charge isn't to be taken lightly. So think about that today: how prepared are you to send people into tough situations? Can you have that on your conscience, and would you be okay with it?"
"Generally speaking, you know your spies well, on a personal level," Ghanima continued. "You must, to know if they are capable of carrying out their mission. Essentially, this boils down to you sending people you trust implicitly out to die. The odds a spy will survive any given mission get lower and lower with each action undertaken, until the law of averages catches up with them."
"They may have children, lovers, families. They may be your family, or your best friend. And you must look them in the eye and send them out into hostile territory over and over until the day they do not come back, and then you must disavow them."
No, Ghanima was not going to pull any punches on this topic. Intelligence was messy, heart-breaking work, and the sooner the students understood that it was not a Bund film, the better.
"Your assignment for next week is to ferret out some tidbit of information to which you would not normally be privy," Ghanima informed them. "Either via another spy, or by uncovering it yourself. You will not need to share exactly what you learned, merely the method used to discover the information."
"And try to avoid pummeling said information out of anyone," Tahiri added dryly, because while she had a feeling at least some people in the class would be very, very good at spying, she was pretty sure others preferred a much more direct approach. "If you do that, and get detention for it, you're not getting excused because it was a class assignment."
[OOC: OCD in formation!]
"Spies are lovely," Ghanima said cheerfully. "Generally clever people -- since stupid ones don't survive long -- incredibly loyal, despite what the media would have you think, and wonderfully resourceful."
Were your ears burning somewhere, Aly? Ghanima hoped so.
"Even if they can occasionally be a pain to deal with," Tahiri added with a grin, and it was clearly a fond one but she wasn't going to elaborate any further since she had a certain future X-Wing pilot in mind. Not that he was in the class, but still. "They're versatile, too. I've done my share of infiltration missions, but that's not even in the same league."
Also she didn't have the patience for it.
"While I am quite adept at manipulation and subterfuge, I lack the temperament -- and ability to blend in -- that a spy requires," Ghanima admitted bluntly. She tended to view things in a much longer game than one where the spies were players. "Now, There are five types of spies," she stated, turning to write on the board:
(4) doomed spies (5) surviving spies.
"When you have these working together properly, it is your greatest resource, greater than munitions or soldiers or generals. Information, as always, is the most powerful weapon of all."
Tahiri picked up from there, and paced a few steps in either direction with her hands behind her back while she talked. "Why is that, exactly? Resources, basically. War is expensive, and people do have physical and mental limits. You don't send a thousand troops into a situation blind, then put everything on hold to rethink your strategy, when sending one person ahead of time to assess the situation will do. Being prepared is generally the smarter course. Having to make up everything as you go along can be exhausting, and it's riskier, too, when you're dragging other people along with you."
"All spies, however, are not created equal," Ghanima stated. "Having local spies means employing the services of the inhabitants of a district, usually to help you detect localized troop movements and to be aware of changes in terrain. Having inward spies means you are making use of officials of the enemy. My personal favorite are the converted spies, getting hold of the enemy's spies and using them for our own purposes."
Ghanima beamed at the class. "Subversion of a loyalist is always so entertaining."
"Quite the feat, too." Tahiri gave up on hiding an amused smirk after about 1.5 seconds. (She supposed she qualified as one of those, technically.) "That said, bear in mind that when you're dealing with deception, you're -- like in last week's lesson -- playing with fire. Your spies are the last people you want to tick off."
"They do know everything that you know. Or at least, they know what you know they know, and probably more besides," Ghanima agreed. "There's a reason that Tzu said 'None should be more liberally rewarded. In no other business should greater secrecy be preserved.'"
"Confidentiality tends to be an important factor in a lot of business dealings, too," Tahiri said, "for more or less the same reason. Companies don't really want to share the secret of how they've got an edge. Get the right kind of knowledge about something or someone and you have some degree of power over them. Personal secrets, the data on their computer, the list goes on."
"For which you have the final categories of spies: there's the 'doomed spies'. Some squeamish generals try to avoid this grouping, but they are indispensable to a solid victory. Having doomed spies, doing certain things openly for purposes of deception, and allows our spies to know of them and report them to the enemy. This is especially vital to situations where you need to manipulate someone to move in a particular way."
"Surviving spies, finally, are those who bring back news from inside the enemy's camp. To have the deepest, darkest, blackmail material possible, you must deploy your doomed spies and your surviving spies, and use the combination to bring back to you the things of most vital importance."
Tahiri nodded. "If any of this sounds uncomfortable . . . Well, that's why being in charge isn't to be taken lightly. So think about that today: how prepared are you to send people into tough situations? Can you have that on your conscience, and would you be okay with it?"
"Generally speaking, you know your spies well, on a personal level," Ghanima continued. "You must, to know if they are capable of carrying out their mission. Essentially, this boils down to you sending people you trust implicitly out to die. The odds a spy will survive any given mission get lower and lower with each action undertaken, until the law of averages catches up with them."
"They may have children, lovers, families. They may be your family, or your best friend. And you must look them in the eye and send them out into hostile territory over and over until the day they do not come back, and then you must disavow them."
No, Ghanima was not going to pull any punches on this topic. Intelligence was messy, heart-breaking work, and the sooner the students understood that it was not a Bund film, the better.
"Your assignment for next week is to ferret out some tidbit of information to which you would not normally be privy," Ghanima informed them. "Either via another spy, or by uncovering it yourself. You will not need to share exactly what you learned, merely the method used to discover the information."
"And try to avoid pummeling said information out of anyone," Tahiri added dryly, because while she had a feeling at least some people in the class would be very, very good at spying, she was pretty sure others preferred a much more direct approach. "If you do that, and get detention for it, you're not getting excused because it was a class assignment."
[OOC: OCD in formation!]
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