These 11 best intelligence agencies in the world in 2017 will be responsible for many of the world’s spying actions and covert operations.
The truth about the second oldest profession is a far cry from most of the spy movies we’ve seen, James Bond included. Keeping tabs on friends and enemies has been an essential part of surviving for countries throughout our history and it seldom included martinis. For the most part, it is hard, gruesome work, whose details public rarely discover. The technology these agencies use changes constantly, as they are trying to get an upper hand over their rivals in their never-ending shadow wars, about which we only hear after they are long over or something goes horribly wrong. Fame isn’t something that any spy craves, in fact, the less the public is aware of them and their actions, the happier they are.
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The 11 best intelligence agencies in the world in 2017 on our list heavily depend on funding, so it’s not a surprise that all of them are also listed among the Top Intelligence Agencies with the Biggest Budgets in the World. Their manpower and equipment both often require absurd amounts of money in order to function properly. Their methods are often criticized, and rightly so, especially when they use torture or unlawful surveillance tactics on their own citizens. Despite all that, the sad truth remains that we need spies, in order to protect ourselves in the world we are living in.
Similar to the Most Elite Hardest Training Special Forces in the World, ranking best intelligence agencies in the world is a tricky business. It’s hard to evaluate someone’s work when most of it is classified, so we decided to listen to Vox Populi on this one. We gathered several lists that ranked them and from all of them, we created our own unique listing. The lists in questions are Foreign Policy, ABC New Point, Expert Security Tips, The Mesh News, and Story Pick.
Here are our picks for the world’s best spies:
11. Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)
Country: Pakistan
ISI’s full name is the Directorate General for Inter-Services Intelligence. It is the most powerful intelligence agency in Pakistan. It came to prominence during the Soviet invasion in Afghanistan, when, in coordination with the CIA, it managed to throw the monkey wrench into Red Army’s operations in the country, despite the KGB’s best efforts, by supplying the mujahideen with US arms and ammo. ISI’s role in Osama bin Laden’s refuge in Pakistan hasn’t been fully disclosed, but there are claims that at least some of the agency’s officials have known his whereabouts long before the United States discovered him in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
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10. Research and Analysis Wing (RAW)
Country: India
After reviewing the lackluster performance of Indian intelligence gathering in Sino-Indian War of 1962 and India-Pakistan War of 1965, the Indian government felt the need to create an agency that would focus solely on foreign intelligence gathering. Thus, the Research and analysis Wing was born in 1968. The new agency started as a part of the already existing Intelligence Burau, established by the British, but soon it developed into an independent body. Traditionally, RAW mainly focuses on Pakistan and China, India’s regional rivals.
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9. Directorate-General for External Security (Direction Generale De La Securite Exterieure – DGSE)
Country: France
Directorate-General for External Security was founded in 1947, under the name of External Documentation and Counter-Espionage Service (Service de Documentation Extérieure et de Contre-Espionnage – SDECE). It only became known as DGSE in 1982. The agency’s past is filled with scandals and controversial actions, most of them performed by the Action Division, its unit tasked with perfuming covert operations abroad. The sinking of the Rainbow Warrior, a Greenpeace vessel, in New Zealand, which resulted in a death of one of the ship’s crew members, was perhaps the most damaging for the DGSE’s image.
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8. Federal Intelligence Service (Bundesnachrichtendienst – BND)
Country: Germany
The Federal Intelligence Service was formally created in 1956, from the members of the Gehlen Organization. Major General Reinhard Gehlen was the head of Wehrmacht’s Abteilung Fremde Heere Ost, the section of Nazi General Staff charged with keeping tabs on the Red Army. After the war, Gehlen cooperated with the allied, mainly American, occupational forces and was tasked with creating a new German intelligence agency. Today, BND has a budget of more than $600 million and it considered one of the best intelligence agencies in Europe, a status they intend to keep in 2017. With Brexit on the horizon, BND will be one of the premiere foreign gathering agencies within the EU.
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7. Secret Intelligence Service (SIS, MI6)
Country: United Kingdom
Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) is better known under its Word War II name of Military Intelligence, Section 6 or MI6 for short. It is the oldest intelligence agency on our list, with lineage tracing back to 1909 and the Secret Service Bureau, founded jointly by the Admiralty and the War Office to keep tabs on the growing might of the Imperial Germany. Its existence wasn’t formally recognized by the British government until 1994. The agency was heavily hit in the late 1940s and early 1950s by the activities of the Cambridge Spy Ring, although it managed to recover and deal some heavy block to its Warsaw Pact counterparts. Recently, it came under fire for its involvement in Iraqi War, namely because of alleged accusations of planting false stories about Saddam Hussein’s WMD program in media.
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6. Ministry of State Security (MSS)
Country: China
The Ministry of State Security was a result of the reorganization of Communist Party of China main intelligence body Central Department of Social Affairs (CDSA), after their ascension to power in the country in 1949. Not much is known about MSS publicly, but Li Fengzhi, a defected MSS operative, has stated that its main purpose was to “to control the Chinese people to maintain the rule of the Communist Party.” MSS has had some notable successes in the past, mainly against the United States, where it managed to keep an undercover operative for more than three decades before he was discovered and arrested in 1985.
5. Federal Security Services (FSB)
Country: Russia
Federal Security Services is the heir to the infamous KGB. Although far less powerful than its predecessor, FSB deserves the spot on the list of the best intelligence agencies in the world in 2017. It is tasked with domestic security, but its responsibilities have been enlarged to include intelligence gathering in CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) countries in 1999 and in 2008, it has been given permission to target individuals engaged in terrorist activities abroad, under the order of the president. In 2013, Federal Border Guard Service, in charge of guarding Russia’s 38,000 miles long borders, became a part of FSB as well. Together with GRU, it has been accused by the United States for meddling in 2016 US presidential election and placed under sanctions.
4. The Institute for Intelligence and Special Operation (MOSSAD)
Country: Israel
MOSSAD was founded in 1949, as a coordinating body between various intelligence agencies of the new state of Israel. In 1951, it was placed under the direct control of the Prime minister’s office. Mossad’s many exploits have elevated it to a legendary status in the intelligence community worldwide. The most secretive and infamous part of Mossad is Kidon. Not much is known about this unit, apart from few statements from former Israeli intelligence officers. According to Yaakov Katz, editor-in-chief of the Jerusalem Post, it is “an elite group of expert assassins who operate under the Caesarea branch of the espionage organization. Not much is known about this mysterious unit, details of which are some of the most closely guarded secrets in the Israeli intelligence community.”
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3. Central Intelligence Agency – CIA
Country: United States of America
The Central Intelligence Agency was founded in 1947. It inherited the task of foreign intelligence gathering from several wartime agencies established in World War II, like the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), National Intelligence Authority, and Central Intelligence Group (CIG). However, it soon outgrew that task and from simple intelligence gathering and analysis, it became a fully-fledged covert action agency. The list of paramilitary operations, assassinations, and other actions taken by the CIA may never be fully disclosed to the public, but the actions that the agency received the most flak were the ones performed on domestic soil, in opposition to its founding act. Perhaps the most infamous were Watergate and Nixon’s Plumbers.
2. Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU)
Country: Russia
GRU’s full name is Main Intelligence Agency of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. It is the largest intelligence agency in Russia in terms of employees. In 1997, besides regular agents, it also controlled some 25,000 infamous Spetznaz troops. The agency is under United States’ government sanctions for alleged tampering in 2016 US presidential election. Some of the highest GRU’s officials have been barred from entering the USA, including GRU Chief, Deputy Chief, and two First Deputy Chiefs. But despite the recent crackdown on its activities on American soil, GRU allegedly still owns and operates significant assets in the US. GRU is heavily involved in ongoing Syrian Civil War.
1. National Security Agency – NSA
Country: United States of America
On top of the list of the best intelligence agencies in the world is the National Security Agency was founded in 1952, with the mission to intercept and analyze signal intelligence (SIGINT). As the technology progressed, the NSA became more and more powerful, becoming one of the biggest intelligence agencies in the United States and the world, both in terms of the number of employees and budget size. Its sheer size, technology, and budget are almost guaranteed to secure it the title of the best intelligence agency in the world in 2017. With the internet and almost free reign given in the aftermath of the 9/11, the NSA is probably the biggest SIGINT agency in the world. It gathers, stores, and analyzes terabytes of data, consisting of location data, intercepted phone calls, emails, even Facebook posts. The agency’s blanket mass surveillance operations have caused a major concern in the United States, as well as among the US foreign allies, who have often found themselves on the wrong side of the NSA’s microphone.
