The project discusses the importance of economic espionage for corporations and their countermeasures to protect themselves against illegal knowledge transfer. Since the late 19th century, a technological "lead" has increasingly been regarded as one of the factors responsible for an uneven distribution of market and political opportunities of states in a global competition. Governments and corporations therefore cooperated closely in the area of a "knowledge policy," which included espionage by national intelligence agencies in favor of the national economy as well as concerted safety precautions by state and corporations against industrial espionage.