General Pinochet, saviour of Chile

I've been reading a lot about General Pinochet lately, as I am writing an essay about his foreign policy for Spy School. I'd almost forgotten what a completely loathsome cockfarmer he is, and it's good to be reminded. It's also entertaining to read about how rubbish his regime's economic performance is... apologists for him talk about how impressive growth was under his regime, but basically count his regime as having come to power in 1987 rather than 1973 in order to skew the statistics.

Someone asked me the other day what I actually study in the old Spy School. An interesting question, and if the same thought has ever crossed your mind, now I will tell you what they have been teaching me there. In the first semester, I did compulsory courses in theory of international relations and international law. This semester I am doing elective courses in Latin American stuff (mainly about attempts by countries in the region to achieve an equitable "insertion" in the world economy) and stuff to do with Eastern Europe (a bit more political). I could have taken courses in Terrorism and something to do with comparing Northern Ireland to other divided societies.

Next semester it's more compulsory stuff - International Political Economy and something to do with Development. Some of my Spy Mates fear the IPE, but I say BRING IT ON. After that, I do one elective course, and then I have to write a thesis on something. If there is something you would like me to write a thesis on, drop me a line.

I'm not sure when they teach all the advanced surveillance techniques that I would have thought a career in espionage requires...maybe they come up in secret courses over the summer.

I had the great idea of starting a second blog to drone on boringly about what I've been learning in spy school, but sadly I became too busy learning stuff to update in properly. THIS IS LIFE.