Since the end of the Second World War, more than 120 Americans have been arrested and charged with espionage. Two have been executed; several more are serving life sentences without hope of parole.

Through case studies, the class will examine, in detail, the careers of the most damaging of these spies, focusing on personal motivation and the employment of operational tradecraft utilized by the spies and their handlers; identify reasons for their successes; learn what caused them to be identified and arrested; review the damage they inflicted to the security of the United States and finally study the laws and federal directives which have been enacted over the past decades in hopes of making it far more difficult for future spies to have any meaningful measure of success.