France
Here, there and everywhere: National Strategic Review wants intelligence services on all fronts

France
Electronic warfare: France's strategic air forces ready to play Russian-refined Poker

France's air and space forces are about to launch an unprecedented nuclear deterrence air exercise involving communications jamming, a new challenge in the wake of lessons learned from the Russian war in Ukraine.

France, Russia
Intelligence 'notes blanches', a black box of visa refusals for Russian nationals

There have been a string of visa refusals for Russian nationals suspected of being spies based on "notes blanches" prepared by the French intelligence services. Those unsigned memos can sometimes lack detail or even have inaccuracies.

France
Defence ministry ponders DGRIS reform as armed forces influence debated

France's directorate general of international relations and strategy, part of the French Ministry of Armed Forces, is to undergo structural reform even as parliament debates a new military programming law. Meanwhile, the directorate's management has been subject to internal criticism.

Spotlight | France, Ukraine
French intelligence service kiboshes naturalisation of Ukrainian potential asset

Despite Paris's support for Kyiv, France's domestic intelligence service remains concerned about counter-espionage. France's refusal to grant citizenship to a Ukrainian professor, based on a note from the DGSI, shines a spotlight on the service's interests in Ukraine's State representations in the French capital.

The Intelligence Gazette
French DGSI's new hiring cell, Rosgvardia's deputy directors, Tel Aviv boosts Albanian cyber, New York jet-setter wins case against Moscow

Appointments, reforms and the issues at stake: every Monday, Intelligence Online serves up snippets big and small from the global intelligence community. This week we home in on Paris, Tel Aviv, Tirana and Moscow.

FranceDGSI's new recruitment cell.

RussiaA new deputy for Zolotov.

Israel/AlbaniaTel Aviv pledges cyber security boost to Tirana.

France/RussiaMoscow loses case in Paris court.

France
French intelligence services foreign cooperation: the government and parliament are planning new laws

It is likely that the France will be condemned by the European Court of Human Rights for its lack of a framework for exchanges with foreign services. It is thus working on legislative changes, without including the control commission in discussions.

France
French parliament mulls over government's capacity for strategic anticipation

A parliamentary report by French MP Jean-Charles Larsonneur published late last month raises the need for heightened cooperation on strategic anticipation at an inter-ministerial level, and not only within the intelligence services.

France
French ministries battle for influence over online counterinterference effort

The French foreign and defence ministries are vying for leadership on strategic communication in response to foreign propaganda, while Viginum, an agency created to fight online interference, and the intelligence services are increasingly cooperating on its monitoring.

France
French intelligence regroups to better cover war in Ukraine

After being caught out by the start of the conflict, France's intelligence services have since restructured and are taking more decisive action on Russia's invasion of Ukraine. But that has come with some serious soul-searching.

France
Paris seeks to grasp the fluid concept of lawfare

"Lawfare", defined as the instrumentalisation of the law by a state for strategic purposes, is currently the focus of France's SGDSN defence and national security secretariat, which is looking for ways to counter US and soon Chinese regulations imposed on French industry.

Spotlight | France
DGSE reform: The DR is dead, long live the DR !

The reform of France's external intelligence service, the DGSE, which was published on 16 July, looks to have signed the death warrant of its intelligence department, Direction du Renseignement (DR). Former DR executives remain as influential as ever, however, in the new structure.

France
Elysée Palace weighs in to solve French intel staffing woes

Understaffed units, top-heavy management, recruitment difficulties and brain drain are among the human resources challenges that intelligence coordinator Laurent Nunez's team has been entrusted with tackling.

France
Five years after intelligence recruitment drive in wake of Paris terror attacks, staffing issues persist

Intelligence services' human resources departments are struggling to retain and integrate large numbers of contractual staff hired in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attacks.