World order 'under threat', say heads of MI6 and CIA

The international world order is under threat in a way not seen since the Cold War, the heads of MI6 and the CIA have warned.

- ANDY GREGORY

In the first joint opinion piece penned by the leaders of the British and American intelligence services in their shared 77year history, the MI6 chief Sir Richard Moore and CIA director William Burns warned that both countries now “face an unprecedented array of threats”.

Writing in the Financial Times, the intelligence leaders reflected on their decades of cooperation over the course of two world wars and in their fight against terrorism, warning: “The challenges of the past are being accelerated in the present, and compounded by technological change.”

“There is no question that the international world order – the balanced system that has led to relative peace and stability and delivered rising living standards, opportunities and prosperity – is under threat in a way we haven’t seen since the Cold War,” they wrote.

For both agencies, “the rise of China is the principal intelligence and geopolitical challenge of the 21st century, and we have reorganised our services to reflect that priority”, they said. And they warned that staying the course in resisting Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine “is more vital than ever”, saying that Russia “will not succeed in extinguishing Ukraine’s sovereignty and independence”.

The spymasters criticised the “reckless campaign of sabotage across Europe being waged by Russian intelligence, and its cynical use of technology to spread lies and disinformation designed to drive wedges between us”.