This is a list of current and former French

intelligence agencies An intelligence agency is a government agency responsible for the collection, analysis, and exploitation of information in support of law enforcement, national security, military, public safety, and foreign policy objectives. Means of informati ...

Currently active

*DGSE:

Directorate-General for External Security The General Directorate for External Security (french: link=no, Direction générale de la Sécurité extérieure, DGSE) is France's foreign intelligence agency, equivalent to the British MI6 and the American CIA, established on 2 April 1982 ...

– '' Direction générale de la sécurité extérieure''. It is the military foreign intelligence agency, which succeeded the ''

Service de Documentation Extérieure et de Contre-Espionnage Service may refer to: Activities * Administrative service, a required part of the workload of university faculty * Civil service, the body of employees of a government * Community service, volunteer service for the benefit of a community or a p ...

'' (SDECE) in 1982 (itself preceded by the '' Direction Générale des Études et Recherches'' (DGER), dependent on the BCRA. *DGSI: General Directorate for Internal Security – '' Direction générale de la sécurité intérieure''. Founded in 2008 by the merger of the RG and the DST, it is tasked with

counter-espionage Counterintelligence is an activity aimed at protecting an agency's intelligence program from an opposition's intelligence service. It includes gathering information and conducting activities to prevent espionage, sabotage, assassinations or ...

counter-terrorism Counterterrorism (also spelled counter-terrorism), also known as anti-terrorism, incorporates the practices, military tactics, techniques, and strategies that Government, governments, law enforcement, business, and Intelligence agency, intellig ...

and the surveillance of potential threats on French territory. *DRM: Directorate of Military Intelligence – '' Direction du renseignement militaire''. It was created by Socialist Interior Minister Pierre Joxe in 1992, after the

Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a Coalition of the Gulf War, 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Ba'athist Iraq, ...

, to centralize military intelligence information. *TRACFIN : Intelligence Processing and Action Against Clandestine Financial Circuits - '' Tracfin''. Founded in 1990, it is tasked with tackling

money laundering Money laundering is the process of concealing the origin of money, obtained from illicit activities such as drug trafficking, corruption, embezzlement or gambling, by converting it into a legitimate source. It is a crime in many jurisdiction ...

and the financing of

terrorism Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

. * DRSD: Directorate of Intelligence and Security of Defense – '' Direction du renseignement et de la sécurité de la Défense''. It is a military intelligence agency, charged with conducting

. *BRGE: Intelligence and Electronic Warfare Brigade – '' Brigade de renseignement''. *DCPJ: Judicial Police – '' Direction centrale de la police judiciaire''. *CNCTR: National Commission for the Control of Security Interceptions – '' Commission nationale de contrôle des techniques de renseignement''. *SCRT: Central Service of Territorial Surveillance - '' Service central de surveillance du territoire'' *SNRP: '' Service national du renseignement pénitentiaire'', a French intelligence agency for carceral security (riot prevention, surveillance of radicalized prisoners for avoid others radicalization, etc.

Former agencies

*''

Bureau Central de Renseignements et d'Action The Bureau Central de Renseignements et d'Action (, Central Bureau of Intelligence and Operations), abbreviated BCRA, was the World War II-era forerunner of the SDECE, the French intelligence service. The BCRA was created by the Free French chief- ...

'' (BCRA) was an intelligence agency created during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

in 1940. *''

Cabinet noir In France, the ''cabinet noir'' (French for " black room", also known as the "dark chamber" or " black chamber") was a government intelligence-gathering office, usually within a postal service, where correspondence between persons or entities wa ...

'' More formally, the cabinet du secret des postes. c. 1750. *

Deuxième Bureau The Deuxième Bureau de l'État-major général ("Second Bureau of the General Staff") was France's external military intelligence agency from 1871 to 1940. It was dissolved together with the Third Republic upon the armistice with Germany. Howeve ...

: France's external military intelligence agency from 1871 to 1940. It was dissolved together with the Third Republic upon the armistice with Germany. *DST: Directorate of Territorial Security – ''

Direction de la surveillance du territoire The Direction de la Surveillance du Territoire (DST; en, Directorate of Territorial Surveillance) was a directorate of the French National Police operating as a domestic intelligence agency. It was responsible for counterespionage, counterterr ...

''. It was an intelligence agency of the Minister of Interior, charged with conducting counter-espionage (in particular in economic matters), and, since the end of the Cold War, also with counterterrorism issues. It was abolished in 2008 and merged into the DCRI. *RG: General Intelligence Directorate – ''

Direction centrale des renseignements généraux The ''Direction Centrale des Renseignements Généraux'' (Central Directorate of General Intelligence), often called ''Renseignements Généraux'' (RG), was the intelligence service of the French National Police, answerable to the ''Direction Gé ...

''. It was the intelligence agency of the

French police Law enforcement in France has a long history dating back to AD 570 when night watch systems were commonplace.Dammer, H. R. and Albanese, J. S. (2014). ''Comparative Criminal Justice Systems'' (5th ed.). Wadesworth Cengage learning: Belmont, C ...

, directed by the

Minister of the Interior An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

. It was charged with overlooking gambling activities, criminal activities, and political radicals (far right and far left). It also used to have as a mission to oversee French political parties, but officially is not charged with this anymore. It was merged into the '' Direction centrale du renseignement intérieur'' in 2008. *''

Service de documentation extérieure et de contre-espionnage Service may refer to: Activities * Administrative service, a required part of the workload of university faculty * Civil service, the body of employees of a government * Community service, volunteer service for the benefit of a community or a p ...

'' (SDECE), successor to BCRA.

* Alexander, Martin S. "Did the Deuxième Bureau work? The role of intelligence in french defence policy and strategy, 1919–39." ''Intelligence and National Security'' 6.2 (1991): 293-333. * Andrew, Christopher. ''The Secret World: A History of Intelligence'' (2018)pp 902–914. * Andrew, Christopher. "France and the German Menace." in ''Knowing One's Enemies: Intelligence Assessment Before the Two World Wars'' edited by Ernest R. May. (1984). * Armes, Keith. "French Intelligence on the Russian Army on the Eve of the First World War." ''Journal of Military History'' 82.3 (2018). * Bauer, Deborah Susan. ''Marianne is Watching: Knowledge, Secrecy, Intelligence and the Origins of the French Surveillance State (1870-1914).'' (PhD Dissertation, UCLA, 2013.
Online
Bibliography pp 536–59 * Chopin, Olivier. "Intelligence reform and the transformation of the state: the end of a French exception." ''Journal of Strategic Studies'' 40.4 (2017): 532-553. * Deacon, Richard. ''The French Secret Service ''(1990). * Forcade, Olivier. ''La République secrète: histoire des services spéciaux français de 1918 à 1939.'' (Paris: Nouveau monde, 2008). * Hayez, Philippe. "'Renseignement': The new French intelligence policy." ''International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence'' 23.3 (2010): 474-486. * Jackson, Peter. "French Military Intelligence responds to the German Remilitarisation of the Rhineland, 1936-A look at French intelligence machinery in 1936." ''Intelligence and National Security'' 22.4 (2007): 546-562. * Jackson, Peter. ''France and the Nazi Menace: Intelligence and Policy Making, 1933-1939'' (2000). * Keiger, John. ''France and the World since 1870'' (2001) ch 4: "French Intelligence" pp 80–109. * Parry, D. L. L. "Clemenceau, Caillaux and the Political Use of Intelligence." ''Intelligence and National Security'' 9#3 (1994): 472-494. * Porch, Douglas. ''The French Secret Services: A History of French Intelligence from the Drefus Affair to the Gulf War'' (Macmillan, 2003). * Warner, Michael. ''The Rise and Fall of Intelligence: An International Security History'' (2014)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Intelligence agencies of France Government agencies of France

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

Intelligence Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. It can be described as the ...

Intelligence communities

Currently active

Former agencies

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Further reading

References