{ "model": { "rank": 2243, "code": "thing-q165950", "model_id": "vr.tr.espionage", "name": "espionage", "purpose": "Let an agent describe espionage as a historical, legal and political phenomenon with attribution, distinguish it from lawful intelligence disciplines such as open-source intelligence and from security work, relay law and notable cases from reliable sources, and give no operational tradecraft.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Activities and processes", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "ACT", "domain": "ACT.ACT", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q165950/", "tier": 2, "score": 111, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "military intelligence", "Unit Hatzav", "open-source intelligence", "naval intelligence", "sanitary and epidemiological reconnaissance", "imagery intelligence", "visual intelligence", "geospatial intelligence", "Intelligence in the American Revolutionary War", "open-source defense intelligence", "open-source intelligence in the Russian invasion of Ukraine", "digital investigation", "thermal intelligence", "Ultra", "cyber espionage", "cyber spying on universities", "financial intelligence", "National Communications Centre", "signals intelligence", "threat intelligence", "communications intelligence", "electronic intelligence", "Spying on families of ARA San Juan", "North Korean espionage in South Korea", "industrial espionage", "Russian spies in the Russo-Ukrainian war", "Russian espionage in Germany", "Russian espionage in the United Kingdom", "Russian espionage in Estonia", "Russian espionage in Poland", "Russian espionage in Latvia", "Russian espionage in Ukraine", "Paraset", "nuclear espionage", "espionage crime in the People's Republic of China", "Dutch espionage during World War II", "clandestine operation", "Sexpionage", "Labor spy" ], "aliasCount": 39, "merged": 39, "knownIn": 111, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q165950", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q165950", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-12T21:24:54Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 3, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q165950", "registryId": "vr.tr.espionage", "name": "espionage", "version": "0.2.0-wave.3", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "ACT.ACT" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q165950/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.espionage", "name": "espionage", "purpose": "Let an agent describe espionage as a historical, legal and political phenomenon with attribution, distinguish it from lawful intelligence disciplines such as open-source intelligence and from security work, relay law and notable cases from reliable sources, and give no operational tradecraft.", "definition": "The practice of obtaining secret or confidential information without the permission of its holder, typically by governments through intelligence agencies and by companies through industrial espionage, using human sources, interception and other means; espionage is a crime under national law while states practise it against one another, and it is studied in history, law and international relations.", "what_it_is_for": "Not applicable; a practice of states and organisations.", "affordances": [ "explain the concept and its history", "distinguish espionage from related intelligence disciplines", "relay law and notable cases", "present debates with attribution" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Secrecy and lack of consent", "State and corporate forms", "Criminal under national law", "Long history and rich culture" ], "appearance": "Not visible; known through history, trials, memoirs and fiction.", "visual_identification": [ "Covert acquisition of secrets without permission", "By states, companies and individuals", "Open-source intelligence and lawful surveillance under warrant are distinct" ], "physical_properties": [], "families_and_kinds": [ "state espionage by intelligence agencies", "human intelligence as a discipline", "signals and imagery intelligence, related disciplines", "industrial and economic espionage", "cyber espionage", "counter-espionage" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "violation of law", "why": "in national law" }, { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "intelligence activity", "why": "the wider field" }, { "relation": "is contrasted with", "target": "open-source intelligence", "why": "lawful collection from public sources" }, { "relation": "is countered by", "target": "counterintelligence", "why": "the defensive activity" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "National espionage and official secrets laws", "International law, which does not regulate espionage directly but governs diplomatic conduct", "Trade secret and economic espionage laws", "Oversight regimes for intelligence agencies" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Prosecution and diplomatic incidents", "Harm to sources", "Agents giving operational tradecraft", "Conflating journalism or research with espionage" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "concept", "name": "Concept", "description": "What espionage is.", "rationale": "Definition.", "layers": [ { "id": "definition", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition and distinctions.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-finding", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is espionage, and how does it differ from open-source intelligence, lawful surveillance and security work?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Is the user asking for operational tradecraft, which the model does not give?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "forms", "name": "Forms", "description": "Forms.", "findings": [ { "id": "forms-finding", "name": "Forms", "description": "Forms.", "questions": [ { "text": "What forms does espionage take, from state to industrial and cyber?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Which entry fits the related discipline?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "law", "name": "Law", "description": "Law and oversight.", "rationale": "Law.", "layers": [ { "id": "national", "name": "National", "description": "National law.", "findings": [ { "id": "national-finding", "name": "National", "description": "National.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do national laws define and punish espionage, in general terms?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the user asking about a specific case, which needs a lawyer?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "international", "name": "International", "description": "International dimension.", "findings": [ { "id": "international-finding", "name": "International", "description": "International.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do international law and diplomacy treat espionage between states?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits intelligence oversight?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "history", "name": "History", "description": "History and cases.", "rationale": "Attribution.", "layers": [ { "id": "history", "name": "History", "description": "History.", "findings": [ { "id": "history-finding", "name": "History", "description": "History.", "questions": [ { "text": "How has espionage developed through history, and which cases are notable, with sources?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which references are standard?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "agencies", "name": "Agencies", "description": "Agencies.", "findings": [ { "id": "agencies-finding", "name": "Agencies", "description": "Agencies.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which intelligence agencies exist, and how are they organised and overseen, from official sources?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits a specific agency?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "debate", "name": "Debate", "description": "Ethics and culture.", "rationale": "Attribution.", "layers": [ { "id": "ethics", "name": "Ethics", "description": "Ethical debates.", "findings": [ { "id": "ethics-finding", "name": "Ethics", "description": "Ethics.", "questions": [ { "text": "What debates exist about the ethics and oversight of espionage, with positions attributed?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the presentation neutral?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "culture", "name": "Culture", "description": "Espionage in culture.", "findings": [ { "id": "culture-finding", "name": "Culture", "description": "Culture.", "questions": [ { "text": "How is espionage portrayed in literature and film, and how does that differ from practice?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits spy fiction?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should intelligence disciplines be separate entries?", "How should case law be linked?", "The registry entry has merged aliases naming intelligence disciplines and a specific unit; should they be split off?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "abstract concept", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a espionage, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent describe espionage as a historical, legal and political phenomenon with attribution, distinguish it from lawful intelligence disciplines such as open-source intelligence and from security work, relay law and notable cases from reliable sources, and give no operational tradecraft.", "characteristics": { "substance": "activity", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: military intelligence, Unit Hatzav, open-source intelligence, naval intelligence, sanitary and epidemiological reconnaissance, imagery intelligence, visual intelligence, geospatial intelligence, Intelligence in the American Revolutionary War, open-source defense intelligence, open-source intelligence in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, digital investigation.", "39 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 111 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a espionage, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "something that happens over time", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "Nothing to see. What is recognised is an instance of it, and which instances count is exactly what is argued about." ], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "military intelligence", "Unit Hatzav", "open-source intelligence", "naval intelligence", "sanitary and epidemiological reconnaissance", "imagery intelligence", "visual intelligence", "geospatial intelligence", "Intelligence in the American Revolutionary War", "open-source defense intelligence", "open-source intelligence in the Russian invasion of Ukraine", "digital investigation" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 111 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 39 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one espionage from another, and a espionage from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a espionage, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a espionage, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a espionage is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a espionage, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a espionage, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a espionage is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a espionage sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a espionage, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a espionage, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a espionage is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a espionage from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a espionage, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a espionage, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a espionage is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a espionage passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a espionage between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a espionage, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a espionage, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a espionage is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a espionage, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a espionage is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a espionage, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a espionage, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a espionage is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "process-and-outcome", "name": "Process, inputs and outcome", "description": "How a espionage proceeds, what it needs and what it leaves behind.", "rationale": "An activity is known by its steps and its results, and both have to be recordable while it is still running.", "layers": [ { "id": "steps-and-sequence", "name": "Steps and sequence", "description": "The steps of a espionage, their order and what may run in parallel.", "findings": [ { "id": "steps-and-preconditions", "name": "Steps, preconditions and completion", "description": "What has to be true before each step of a espionage and what marks it done.", "questions": [ { "id": "steps-and-preconditions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a step of a espionage, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "steps-and-preconditions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a step of a espionage, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "steps-and-preconditions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a step of a espionage is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "inputs-and-results", "name": "Inputs, resources and results", "description": "What a espionage consumes and what it produces.", "findings": [ { "id": "inputs-and-outputs", "name": "Inputs, outputs and side effects", "description": "The resources a espionage takes and the results it leaves, wanted or not.", "questions": [ { "id": "inputs-and-outputs-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the inputs and results of a espionage, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "inputs-and-outputs-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the inputs and results of a espionage, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "inputs-and-outputs-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the inputs and results of a espionage is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "definitions-in-contest", "name": "Definitions and who holds them", "description": "What espionage is taken to mean, and by whom.", "rationale": "When a field disagrees about a concept, the disagreement is the content. A model that picks one definition silently destroys the information.", "layers": [ { "id": "competing-definitions", "name": "Competing definitions", "description": "The main readings and the traditions behind them.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-map", "name": "Definitions and their holders", "description": "Each definition with the school or body that holds it.", "questions": [ { "id": "definition-map-q01", "text": "Which definitions of espionage are in use, and which tradition or body holds each?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "definition-map-q02", "text": "What turns on the difference between them in practice?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "operationalisation", "name": "Operationalisation", "description": "How it is measured or applied when it has to be.", "findings": [ { "id": "operational-record", "name": "Measures and proxies", "description": "Instruments and indicators used to stand in for it.", "questions": [ { "id": "operational-record-q01", "text": "How is espionage operationalised or measured in practice, and by what instrument?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "id": "operational-record-q02", "text": "What does that operationalisation leave out, and when does that matter?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "instances-and-use", "name": "Instances, use and consequence", "description": "What counts as an instance of espionage and what follows from calling something that.", "rationale": "Applying a concept is an act with consequences, so a model must say what the label licenses and what it does not.", "layers": [ { "id": "instances", "name": "What counts as an instance", "description": "Clear cases, borderline cases and non-cases.", "findings": [ { "id": "instance-tests", "name": "Tests for an instance", "description": "What would settle whether something falls under it.", "questions": [ { "id": "instance-tests-q01", "text": "What would settle whether something is an instance of espionage?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "id": "instance-tests-q02", "text": "Which borderline cases are argued about, and on what grounds?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "consequence", "name": "Consequence of application", "description": "Rights, duties or decisions that follow from the label.", "findings": [ { "id": "consequence-record", "name": "What the label licenses", "description": "What an agent may do once something is classified this way.", "questions": [ { "id": "consequence-record-q01", "text": "What follows practically once something is treated as espionage?", "kind": "action" }, { "id": "consequence-record-q02", "text": "What must an agent not infer from the label alone?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a espionage came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a espionage and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a espionage, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a espionage, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a espionage is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a espionage is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a espionage, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a espionage, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a espionage is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 12, "findings": 14, "questions": 38 } } } }