Tapping into the history of intelligence-gathering and his work with former agents of the CIA, FBI, and other federal departments, Jeremy Hurewitz offers field-tested spycraft strategies and government-agency tactics anyone can use to build relationships, persuade, and sell anything.
Hurewitz has built his career around CIA case officers, FBI agents, and government officials—people like Steve Romano, former Chief Negotiator of the FBI; Mark Sullivan, former Director of the Secret Service; General Stanley McChrystal (Ret.), former Commander of the Joint Special Operations Command; and John Cipher, former member of the CIA's Senior Intelligence Service. Drawing on in-depth interviews about their skillsets, spy-world anecdotes, and science-backed principles of behavioral intelligence, Hurewitz has created a handbook of techniques that will strengthen your ability to connect, entice, and make deals—in business and everyday life.
Though a spy's targets may be odious—terrorists, criminals, corrupt diplomats, and more—the agent's focus is on cultivating relationships and understanding motivations to gather information, free hostages, or procure money. Elicitation, Radical Empathy, and RPM (Rationalize, Project Blame, and Minimize Fault) are just a few methods in this persuasion playbook from the real world of international espionage.
