Cunning employed in any lawless state (7)
I believe the answer is:
anarchy
'lawless state' is the definition.
'anarchy' can be an answer for 'state' (anarchy is a kind of state). I am not sure about the 'lawless' bit.
'cunning employed in any' is the wordplay.
'cunning' becomes 'arch' (I've seen this before).
'employed in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'arch' inserted within 'any' is 'ANARCHY'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for anarchy that I've seen before include "Unrule" , "State of disorder in society" , "Absence of government" , "Society without government or law, chaos" , "State of civil disorder" .)