Investigating soviet espionage and subversion: the case of Donald Maclean
This essay sets out the dimensions of investigating Soviet espionage and subversion, highlighting how Maclean's image as a Soviet agent has developed over the past 50 years. It will then consider to what extent new documents at the Public Record Office alter his image. Maclean's crime was treachery but what exactly is the intellectual challenge in investigating espionage? Just what can be achieved? Sir Dick White former head of MI6 offered this advice: Espionage is a crime that often leaves no trace of evidence. The investigator relies upon intuition for coincidences. After considering the circumstances, he might reach the moment of epiphany when all the facts added up to one conclusion1
FROM COMMUNIST CADRE TO OUTSIDER
This article builds on recent research on Scandinavians in the international communist movement and on intelligence operations in Sweden before and during the Second World War. Through a microhistorical approach that centres around the Swedish communist cadre Ingvar Larsson, who was first an operative of the Comintern’s highly secret communications and courier network (OMS) and later was estranged from the communist movement, the article looks beyond structures and organizations, focusing instead on the choices and options of people driven by both ideology and opportunism. By exploring a diverse collection of Comintern, Soviet, and Swedish archival sources, the article highlights some of the peculiar challenges of intelligence history and of constructing a narrative in a way that illuminates both the agency of individuals and the wider culture of tensions and uncertainties between ideals and realities.
The Law of Failure
If a broker-dealer liquidates in federal bankruptcy court, why does an insurance company liquidate in state court, and a bank outside of court altogether? Why do some businesses re-organize under state law 'assignments', rather than the more well-known Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code? Why do some laws use the language of bankruptcy but without advancing policy goals of the Bankruptcy Code? In this illuminating work, Stephen J. Lubben tackles these questions and many others related to the collective law of business insolvency in the United States. In the first book of its kind, Lubben notes the broad similarities between the many insolvency systems in the United States while describing the fundamental differences lurking therein. By considering the whole sweep of these laws - running the gamut from Chapter 11 to obscure receivership provisions of the National Bank Act - readers will acquire a fundamental understanding of the 'law of failure'.