u/greenbergz

>Once, a hostile secret service had to send a skilled and experienced operative to commit assassination, sabotage or terrorism thousands of miles away, or activate networks of sleeper agents, or find and train ideologically committed recruits ready to betray their country. Such schemes took years to prepare.

Now spymasters can use a series of proxies, each thousands of miles apart, to find candidates for recruitment. Their new operatives might be less capable than their predecessors but are easier to find in significant numbers.