Popular soldier set up in bona fide conspiracy (8)
I believe the answer is:
intrigue
'conspiracy' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'popular soldier set up in bona fide' is the wordplay.
'popular' becomes 'in'.
'soldier' becomes 'gi' (government issue or general issue).
'set up' shows that the letters should be reversed in order.
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'bona fide' becomes 'true' (I've seen this before).
'gi' backwards is 'ig'.
'ig' put into 'true' is 'trigue'.
'in'+'trigue'='INTRIGUE'
(Other definitions for intrigue that I've seen before include "Secret plotting" , "Mysterious quality" , "pique?" , "A conspiracy or an affair" , "Illicit plotting" .)