Video On Demand

Book Event: Spy Games

December 16, 2015 • 3:00 – 4:30 pm EST

Featuring a discussion with author:

Adam Brookes
Fmr. China Correspondent, BBC
Author of Night Heron and Spy Games

Moderated by:

Murray Hiebert
Deputy Director and Senior Fellow, Sumitro Chair for Southeast Asia Studies, CSIS

While serving as the BBC’s China Correspondent, Adam Brookes was repeatedly approached by a shadowy man offering him Chinese military secrets. Brookes didn’t take the bait, but those encounters inspired his first critically acclaimed novel, Night Heron. The Washington Post called Night Heron a " top-notch thriller" with a "suspenseful, persuasive story." NPR named it one of the Best Books of 2014. Brookes' sequel,Spy Games, was named one of NPR's Best Books of 2015.

Spy Games carries the story forward to Ethiopia, London, Thailand, and a strange, ungoverned space between China and Myanmar.

In Brookes’ Africa, China is helping to write the future, using telecommunications and infrastructure projects as potent tools of soft power in the face of western indifference. A story of collusion and betrayal between British and Chinese intelligence agencies comes to a head in Thailand. Through the medium of the spy story, Brookes examines China's global power projection and asks where the West's strategic interests lie.

Brookes' presentation will include photographs from a research trip that uncovered details of China's presence in Ethiopia.


This event is made by possible by general support to CSIS. No direct funding contributed to this event.

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Murray Hiebert
Senior Associate (Non-resident), Southeast Asia Program