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
-
January 29, 2026Le Mali, le Burkina Faso et le Niger, réunis au sein de l’Alliance des États du Sahel (AES), affirment l’ambition de bâtir une souveraineté nationale qui leur permettrait de s’émanciper de la domination et des influences extérieures et de se doter d’une liberté d’action dans les choix de développement politique et économique. Cependant, cette ambition se heurte à de nombreuses contraintes économiques et sécuritaires.La souveraineté ne peut se construire sans une base économique soli ... -
January 27, 2026في وقت يشهد فيه الشرق الأوسط واحدة من أكثر فتراته تعقيدًا واضطرابًا، تظهر مبادرات السلام بأشكال غير تقليدية. أعلنت إدارة الرئيس الأمريكي دونالد ترامب مؤخرًا عن إطلاق مجلس السلام، ما يثير تساؤلات حول مستقبل الدبلوماسية ودور المؤسسات الدولية، وما إذا كان يمثل محاولة لكسر الجمود السياسي أو... -
January 16, 2026This episode examines the evolving U.S.–Venezuela relationship amid renewed U.S. assertiveness in the Western Hemisphere. It discusses Venezuela’s democratic crisis, the failure of the Ba ... -
January 6, 2026La création de l’Alliance des États du Sahel (AES) symbolise une rupture politique et géostratégique majeure, appuyée sur un discours souverainiste et anti-occidental. Deux ans après, Mali, Burkina Faso et Niger peinent à assurer leur intégrité territoriale, à stabiliser leur sécurité intérieure et à bâtir une gouvernance solide. L’intégrité territoriale est un problème commun aux trois États, car dans ces pays, la cohésion de l’État et le contrôle du territoire sont directement men ... -
December 30, 2025Fuel access has become a strategic pressure point across Mali and its neighbors. In 2025, Jama’t Nusrat al Islam wal- Muslimeen (JNIM) shifted from sporadic interdictions to a deliberate fuel-blockade strategy intended to pressure Bamako without holding territory. By selectively constraining movement along the Sikasso–Kayes–Bamako corridor, the group turned fuel scarcity into a tool of coercion, governance, and narrative control—shaping behavior in the capital while remaining largel ... -
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 ...
