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==British Espionage Services==
The increasing complexities of the 19th century and British entanglement in international affairs as the British Empire expanded demonstrated a new structure was needed to manage the government's espionage services. In 1909, the Security Service (MI5) and Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) were created with the realization two agencies were needed to manage domestic (MI5) and foreign intelligence (MI6) gathering. At this point, the emerging power of Germany became the biggest foreign threat, while civil unrest over inequality and poor conditions meant that MI5 was also very active in thwarting rebellionand rise of new ideas such as Communism. However, it was the events of World War I were where both these services saw great expansionand began to mature to the systems we know them today. Even before the war, there was much tension over the increasing naval arms race between Britain and Germany that led to many accusations of espionage by against Germany, with at least one case where a true plot was, indeed, uncovered. During World War I, approximately 120 spies served Germany and were sent or assitgned assigned to Britain, of which 65 were caught and the remainder failed to send significant intelligence. This demonstrated that the new structure of dividing the external and internal spy agencies was a relatively workable modelthat made it easier for one head to focus on. By the end of World War I, the new threat and more significant threat was seen to be Communism and the rise of the Soviet Union.<ref>For more on the development of MI5 and MI6, see: Thomas, G. (2009) <i>Secret wars: one hundred years of British intelligence inside MI5 and MI6</i>. 1st ed. New York, Thomas Dunne Books.</ref>
While MI5 was active in keeping Germany and other threats away from harming Britain, MI6 worked to cultivate its spies in the continent. The development of many spies in Belgium, in particular, allowed Britain to gain a lot of quality intelligence from Germany during the course of the war. This network was known as ‘La Dame Blanche, where everything from monitoring train movements to troop movements and reports about battlefield losses were obtained from the spy networks primary area of operations in Belgium.<ref>For more on the ‘La Dame Blanche, see: Richelson, J. (1997) <i>A century of spies: intelligence in the twentieth century</i>. Oxford paperpacks. New York, Oxford Univ. Press, pg. 23.</ref>
After World War II, military clandestine warfare began to be absorbed into MI6, that is Special Operations Executive (SOE), integrated with MI6. The Cold War period also saw the US Central Intelligence Agency form close working relationships. While MI5 attempted to keep the Soviet Union off balance in its spying attempts, many other threats emerged, including the Irish Republication Army during the Troubles and industrial espionage by states. For the most part, Britain had relatively greater success than the United States in the Cold War in preventing important secrets from being discovered.<ref>For more on Cold War espionage, see: Trahair, R.C.S. & Miller, R.L. (2012)<i> Encyclopedia of Cold War espionage, spies, and secret operations</i>. New York, Enigma.</ref>
==Conclusion==
