[wildmusings]

So long as there is no world government with a monopoly on violence, that's just the way the game works. And it's not really anything to do with American hegemony in particular. Every country seeks to maximize its own power relative to others. Espionage is just one tool toward that end.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Realism_(international_relatio...

And while you may believe with good reason that an individual should have higher loyalties (perhaps to humanity as a whole) than to his nation state, the legal codes of the nation states obviously cannot endorse that view, as it would be destructive of their own power and their competitors will not be so altruistic.