John Sawers, former Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), shares his insights on how security threats have evolved with the rise of digital technologies and social media. In this interview, he offers a compelling exploration of the shift from traditional methods to contemporary security challenges. Sawers examines how intelligence approaches have adapted to address new threats, including the influence of social media on democratic processes and the evolving global geopolitical landscape. The discussion provides An insightful analysis of the current dynamics in intelligence work and highlights the critical issues facing intelligence services in an increasingly interconnected and digital world.
RELATED CONTENT
-
December 23, 2025Les pays membres de l’Alliance des États du Sahel (le Mali, le Burkina Faso et le Niger) demeurent dépendants d’un nombre restreint de corridors d’accès à la mer, une configuration qui limite leur capacité d’ajustement en cas de perturbation et accroît la sensibilité de leurs chaînes d’approvisionnement. Le blocus du tronçon Kayes-Nioro a illustré la forte criticité du corridor Dakar-Bamako : l’interruption d’un segment unique a entraîné une contraction rapide des flux, révélant la ... -
December 23, 2025The member countries of the Alliance of Sahel States, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, remain dependent on a limited number of maritime access corridors, a configuration that constrains their adjustment capacity in the event of disruption and heightens the vulnerability of their supply chains. The Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM) blockade of the Kayes-Nioro area revealed how critical the Dakar-Bamako corridor is for the political and economic stability of Mali. Its interr ... -
December 19, 2025In this episode of the Policy Center for the New South podcast, we examine the first 100 days of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. Together with Bilal Mali, International Relations Specia ... -
December 19, 2025The U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean—the most significant since the Cuban Missile Crisis—comes at a moment when a new world order is taking shape, its contours still unclear, and in which the U.S. seeks to be more assertive in the Western Hemisphere. This disposition toward South America and the Caribbean was underscored by the recent publication of the new U.S. National Security Strategy, in which the Monroe Doctrine is explicitly invoked. This Policy Brief situates the devel ... -
December 18, 2025The return of President Donald Trump to the White House at the start of 2025 was expected to signal an American retreat from international engagement, especially in regions of traditional security interest, such as southern Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. To the surprise of many observers around the Mediterranean, and perhaps to the dismay of some in the Trump administration’s ideological orbit, this has not happened. If anything, the second half of 2025 has seen a high d ... -
December 17, 2025I recently participated in a discussion between Israelis and Arabs, some living in the Middle East, some living abroad[1]. The discussion topic was ‘The Two State Solution’. This article presents my personal takeaways from the discussion. It does not try to describe the details, and other participants may have different takeaways.I joined the discussion thinking that the two-state solution was dead. Most of the other participants felt the same way—all very pessimistic. But I left fe ... -
December 14, 2025In 2025, the global landscape became increasingly fragmented and uncertain. Great power competition intensified, regional conflicts became protracted and exacerbated, while economic nationalism reshaped the rules of trade and development. The mechanisms for conflict resolution and cooperation that have long provided a foundation for international cooperation are now under strain due to polarization and mistrust. Even longstanding alliances, bilateral and collective security architec ... -
December 8, 2025Although the crises affecting the Sahel have been widely analysed through the lenses of armed groups, state fragility and geopolitics, much less is known about how women experience insurgent governance in their everyday lives. This is particularly pertinent to members of the pastoralist Peuhl ethnic group, which has been strategically targeted for recruitment by the Central Sahel’s dominant Islamist armed group, Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), as a means of facilitating ... -
December 4, 2025The episode examines the escalating instability in Mali as JNIM’s blockade on vital supplies tightens pressure on Bamako and exposes the Malian state’s vulnerabilities. Senior Fellow Rida Lyammouri explains why a full assault on the capital is unlikely, highlighting instead JNIM’s strat... -
December 1, 2025This Paper was originally published on transatlantic.org The contemporary maritime domain is increasingly recognized as a geopolitical and economic space, but also as an environment intertwined with human, social, ecological, and governance systems ashore. The United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR 2024) report argues that maritime security has evolved from a narrow naval and state-centered concern into a multidimensional issue embedded in global human s ...
