ABSTRACT
Spooks, spies, subterfuge, terrorism-these are all terms that have been a rich source of material for the spy genre of books, lms, and television drama. at rich source of information has so far been pretty elusive to the academic world. As a result of restricted access there has, to date, never been any academic research that looks inside how agencies that police national security operate. at is, until now. One of the key roles of the UK’s Integrated Special Branch (ISB) is to conduct surveillance, and arrest and interview suspects in counterterrorism investigations. In the UK, the ISB is a policing department that forms part of the overall policing of national security in the UK, and they work closely with the UK state agency MI5.
