Morning person protected by spies in the country (8)
I believe the answer is:
cambodia
'the country' is the definition.
(Cambodia is an example)
'morning person protected by spies' is the wordplay.
'morning' becomes 'am'.
'person' becomes 'bod' (bod can informally mean a person or body).
'protected by' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'spies' becomes 'CIA' (Central Intelligence Agency).
'am'+'bod'='ambod'
'ambod' placed within 'cia' is 'CAMBODIA'.
'in' is the link.
(Other definitions for cambodia that I've seen before include "SE Asian country" , "Country in southeast Asia, home to Khmer people" , "SE Asian nation" , "somewhere in Asia" , "distant land" .)