The present participle of counterspy; the act of working to detect and prevent enemy espionage.
Gerund form of 'counterspy,' which combines 'counter-' with 'spy.' Emerged as a verb form in 20th-century military and intelligence contexts. The -ing suffix converts the noun into an action.
During the Cold War, counterspying became so sophisticated that both the US and USSR spent billions on operations that essentially canceled each other out—the most expensive spy games often resulted in stalemate rather than victory.
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