Key Takeaways:
- The new chief of MI6, Blaise Metreweli, will warn of the acute threat posed by Russia in her first public speech.
- She will highlight the importance of hybrid warfare, including cyber attacks and drones, and emphasize the need for Britain to keep up the pressure on President Vladimir Putin over Ukraine.
- Metreweli will also stress the importance of technology in modern espionage, calling on intelligence officers to master coding skills and be fluent in programming languages like Python.
- The Chief of the Defence Staff, Sir Richard Knighton, will call for a "whole of society approach" to building national resilience in the face of growing threats and uncertainty.
- Sir Richard will emphasize the need for a more comprehensive approach to defence, involving not just the military but also universities, industry, and other sectors.
Introduction to the New MI6 Chief
The new chief of MI6, Blaise Metreweli, is set to make her first public speech, in which she will warn of the acute threat posed by Russia. Metreweli, who took over as head of the Secret Intelligence Service in the autumn, will highlight the importance of hybrid warfare, including cyber attacks and drones suspected of being launched near critical infrastructure by Russian proxies. She will describe this as "an acute threat posed by an aggressive, expansionist and revisionist Russia". This warning comes as tensions between Russia and the West continue to escalate, with the war in Ukraine showing no signs of abating.
The Threat of Hybrid Warfare
Metreweli’s speech will point to the recent sanctioning of Russian entities accused of conducting information warfare, as well as two China-based companies sanctioned for their "indiscriminate cyber activities against the UK and its allies". Western sanctions have certainly damaged Russia’s economy, driving its exports eastwards towards China and India. However, they have singularly failed to change President Putin’s determination to wage war on Ukraine until it gives in to his demands for territory and ultimately, loyalty to Moscow. The use of hybrid warfare, including cyber attacks and drones, has become a key component of Russia’s strategy, and Metreweli’s warning highlights the need for Britain to be vigilant in the face of these threats.
The Importance of Technology in Modern Espionage
It is also clear from Metreweli’s speech that a special area of interest for the new spy chief is technology. Having joined MI6 in 1999, she has arrived at the top job via Q Branch, the real-life, in-house, top secret part of the Secret Intelligence Service that designs the sorts of gadgets and gizmos that enable agents to communicate with their handlers without being detected and caught. In her speech, she is expected to call on all her intelligence officers to master technology, "not just in our labs, but in the field, in our tradecraft.. We must be as comfortable with lines of [computer] code as we are with human sources, as fluent in Python as we are in multiple languages". This emphasis on technology highlights the changing nature of espionage in the modern era, where data is key and spies can no longer rely on false identities when biometric scanning can unmask them in seconds at borders and checkpoints.
A Whole of Society Approach to Defence
Elsewhere, the Chief of the Defence Staff, Sir Richard Knighton, will call for a "whole of society approach" to building national resilience, in the face of growing threats and uncertainty. In a speech to the Royal United Services Institute in London, Sir Richard is expected to say that defence and resilience need to be a higher priority for everyone, not just those in the military. This is the latest in a string of warnings that the UK needs to be more ready than it is now to meet a growing volume of threats. Sir Richard is expected to say that the situation is more dangerous than he has known during his entire career, and that Russia has made it clear that it wishes to challenge, limit, divide and ultimately destroy Nato.
Building National Resilience
Sir Richard will emphasize the need for a more comprehensive approach to defence, involving not just the military but also universities, industry, and other sectors. He will say that deterrence involves harnessing the UK’s power, from its universities to industry, the rail network and the NHS. "A new era for defence doesn’t just mean our military and government stepping up – as we are – it means our whole nation stepping up," he will say. Addressing a skills gap highlighted in a recent report by the Royal Academy of Engineering, Sir Richard will talk about the need to work with industry and young people and will announce £50m for new defence technical excellence colleges. This approach recognizes that defence is no longer just the preserve of the military, but requires a broader effort from society as a whole.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the speeches by Metreweli and Sir Richard highlight the growing threats faced by the UK and the need for a more comprehensive approach to defence and national resilience. The emphasis on technology and hybrid warfare underscores the changing nature of modern espionage and the need for Britain to be vigilant in the face of these threats. The call for a "whole of society approach" to defence recognizes that the UK needs to be more ready than it is now to meet the growing volume of threats, and that this requires a broader effort from society as a whole. As the debate about how Britain should respond to an increasingly uncertain world gathers pace, it is clear that the UK needs to be more proactive in building its national resilience and defending its interests in the face of growing threats.
