I.C. Smith was one of the top investigators with the FBI for some 25 years working in Chinese counter-intelligence. In 1980 he was promoted to the FBI's Senior Executive Service and appointed the State Department's Chief of Investigations, Counterintelligence Programs, and Diplomatic Security. He then entered the FBI's National Security Division and was Section Chief for Analysis, Budget and Training, responsible for liaison with foreign intelligence and security agencies and represented the FBI in the U.S. Intelligence Community and on the National Foreign Intelligence Board. Since retirement in 1998 he lectures at the Joint Counterintelligence Training Academy, the Office of the Counterintelligence Executive, and testified before the U.

S. China Commission on the intelligence threat of the PRC. Nigel West is currently the European Editor of the International Journal of Intelligence and Counter-Intelligence and teaches the history of postwar intelligence at the Centre for Counterintelligence and Security Studies. He is the author of many books, including the Historical Dictionary of British Intelligence (Scarecrow, 2005), Historical Dictionary of International Intelligence (Scarecrow, 2006), Historical Dictionary of Cold War Counterintelligence (Scarecrow, 2007), and Historical Dictionary of Sexspionage (Scarecrow, 2009). In October 2003 he was awarded the U.S. Association of Former Intelligence Officers' first Lifetime Literature Achievement Award.