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List of intelligence agencies of France
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<h2 id="currently-active">Currently active</h2> <ul><li>DGSE: <a href="/facts/Directorate-General_for_External_Security/2RmV0SVe">Directorate-General for External Security</a> – <i><a href="/facts/Direction_g%25C3%25A9n%25C3%25A9rale_de_la_s%25C3%25A9curit%25C3%25A9_ext%25C3%25A9rieure/2RmV0SVe">Direction générale de la sécurité extérieure</a></i>. It is the military foreign intelligence agency, which succeeded the <i><a href="/facts/Service_de_Documentation_Ext%25C3%25A9rieure_et_de_Contre-Espionnage/oQIWRfJ8">Service de Documentation Extérieure et de Contre-Espionnage</a></i> (SDECE) in 1982 (itself preceded by the <i><a href="/facts/Direction_G%25C3%25A9n%25C3%25A9rale_des_%25C3%2589tudes_et_Recherches/kXa38h6u">Direction Générale des Études et Recherches</a></i> (DGER), dependent on the BCRA.</li> <li>DGSI: General Directorate for Internal Security – <i><a href="/facts/Direction_g%25C3%25A9n%25C3%25A9rale_de_la_s%25C3%25A9curit%25C3%25A9_int%25C3%25A9rieure/GL8JAr2w">Direction générale de la sécurité intérieure</a></i>. Founded in 2008 by the merger of the <a href="/facts/Direction_centrale_des_renseignement_g%25C3%25A9n%25C3%25A9raux/zUXXvyc9">RG</a> and the <a href="/facts/Direction_de_la_surveillance_du_territoire/vwDelAIh">DST</a>, it is tasked with <a href="/facts/Counter-espionage/MDAxLaSh">counter-espionage</a>, <a href="/facts/Counter-terrorism/XSzTcfND">counter-terrorism</a> and the surveillance of potential threats on French territory.</li> <li>DRM: Directorate of Military Intelligence – <i><a href="/facts/Direction_du_renseignement_militaire/nRkQgXSH">Direction du renseignement militaire</a></i>. It was created by Interior Minister <a href="/facts/Pierre_Joxe/KTRQRpdu">Pierre Joxe</a> in 1992, after the <a href="/facts/Gulf_War/6LdLnGdo">Gulf War</a>, to centralize military intelligence information.</li> <li>TRACFIN : Intelligence Processing and Action Against Clandestine Financial Circuits - <i><a href="/facts/Tracfin/dXp3XshC">Tracfin</a></i>. Founded in 1990, it is tasked with tackling <a href="/facts/Money_laundering/98Gw3mgx">money laundering</a> and the financing of <a href="/facts/Terrorism/DHJGPJ6P">terrorism</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:1" href="#fn:1"><sup>1</sup></a></li> <li><a href="/facts/DPSD/tszU1nTP">DRSD</a>: Directorate of Intelligence and Security of Defense – <i>Direction du renseignement et de la sécurité de la Défense</i>. It is a military intelligence agency, charged with conducting <a href="/facts/Counter-espionage/MDAxLaSh">counter-espionage</a>.</li> <li>BRGE: Intelligence and Electronic Warfare Brigade – <i>Brigade de renseignement</i>.</li> <li>DCPJ: Judicial Police – <i><a href="/facts/Direction_centrale_de_la_police_judiciaire/CXXYvVKE">Direction centrale de la police judiciaire</a></i>.</li> <li>CNCTR: National Commission for the Control of Security Interceptions – <i>Commission nationale de contrôle des techniques de renseignement</i>.</li> <li>SCRT: Central Service of Territorial Surveillance - <i>Service central de surveillance du territoire</i></li> <li>SNRP: <i>Service national du renseignement pénitentiaire</i>, a French intelligence agency for carceral security (riot prevention, surveillance of radicalized prisoners for avoid others radicalization, etc.</li></ul> <h2 id="former-agencies">Former agencies</h2> <ul><li><i><a href="/facts/Bureau_Central_de_Renseignements_et_d%2527Action/15zG3IBI">Bureau Central de Renseignements et d'Action</a></i> (BCRA) was an intelligence agency created during <a href="/facts/World_War_II/2efV5L1U">World War II</a> in 1940.</li> <li><i><a href="/facts/Cabinet_noir/d6DU77Lt">Cabinet noir</a></i> More formally, the cabinet du secret des postes. c. 1750.</li> <li><a href="/facts/Deuxi%25C3%25A8me_Bureau/VvCtx6gP">Deuxième Bureau</a>: France's external military intelligence agency from 1871 to 1940. It was dissolved together with the Third Republic upon the armistice with Germany.</li> <li>DST: Directorate of Territorial Security – <i><a href="/facts/Direction_de_la_surveillance_du_territoire/vwDelAIh">Direction de la surveillance du territoire</a></i>. 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 <a href="/facts/Direction_centrale_du_renseignement_int%25C3%25A9rieur/GL8JAr2w">DCRI</a>.</li> <li>RG: General Intelligence Directorate – <i><a href="/facts/Direction_centrale_des_renseignements_g%25C3%25A9n%25C3%25A9raux/zUXXvyc9">Direction centrale des renseignements généraux</a></i>. It was the intelligence agency of the <a href="/facts/French_police/IAPV93bI">French police</a>, directed by the <a href="/facts/Minister_of_the_Interior_(France)/Frym8DAV">Minister of the Interior</a>. 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 <i><a href="/facts/Direction_centrale_du_renseignement_int%25C3%25A9rieur/GL8JAr2w">Direction centrale du renseignement intérieur</a></i> in 2008.</li> <li><i><a href="/facts/Service_de_documentation_ext%25C3%25A9rieure_et_de_contre-espionnage/oQIWRfJ8">Service de documentation extérieure et de contre-espionnage</a></i> (SDECE), successor to BCRA.</li></ul> <h2 id="see-also">See also</h2> <ul><li><a href="/facts/History_of_espionage/l3ScG090">History of espionage</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/List_of_intelligence_agencies/BNavd5y9">List of (worldwide) intelligence agencies</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/Club_de_Berne/mwWCVp0x">Club de Berne</a></li></ul> <h2 id="further-reading">Further reading</h2> <ul><li>Alexander, Martin S. "Did the Deuxième Bureau work? The role of intelligence in French defence policy and strategy, 1919–39." <i>Intelligence and National Security</i> 6.2 (1991): 293-333.</li> <li>Andrew, Christopher. <i>The Secret World: A History of Intelligence</i> (2018)pp 902–914.</li> <li>Andrew, Christopher. "France and the German Menace." in <i>Knowing One's Enemies: Intelligence Assessment Before the Two World Wars</i> edited by Ernest R. May. (1984).</li> <li>Armes, Keith. "French Intelligence on the Russian Army on the Eve of the First World War." <i>Journal of Military History</i> 82.3 (2018).</li> <li>Bauer, Deborah Susan. <i>Marianne is Watching: Intelligence, Counterintelligence, and the Origins of the French Surveillance State</i> (2021) <a href="https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=58926">online book review</a> <ul><li>Bauer, Deborah Susan. "'Marianne is Watching: Knowledge, Secrecy, Intelligence and the Origins of the French Surveillance State (1870–1914)." (PhD Dissertation, UCLA, 2013.) <a href="https://cloudfront.escholarship.org/dist/prd/content/qt7rt4z6js/qt7rt4z6js.pdf">Online</a> Bibliography pp 536–59.</li></ul></li> <li>Chopin, Olivier. "Intelligence reform and the transformation of the state: the end of a French exception." <i>Journal of Strategic Studies</i> 40.4 (2017): 532-553.</li> <li>Deacon, Richard. <i>The French Secret Service </i>(1990).</li> <li>Forcade, Olivier. <i>La République secrète: histoire des services spéciaux français de 1918 à 1939.</i> (Paris: Nouveau monde, 2008).</li> <li>Hayez, Philippe. "'Renseignement': The new French intelligence policy." <i>International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence</i> 23.3 (2010): 474-486.</li> <li>Jackson, Peter. "French Military Intelligence responds to the German Remilitarisation of the Rhineland, 1936-A look at French intelligence machinery in 1936." <i>Intelligence and National Security</i> 22.4 (2007): 546-562.</li> <li>Jackson, Peter. <i>France and the Nazi Menace: Intelligence and Policy Making, 1933-1939</i> (2000).</li> <li>Keiger, John. <i>France and the World since 1870</i> (2001) ch 4: "French Intelligence" pp 80–109.</li> <li>Parry, D. L. L. "Clemenceau, Caillaux and the Political Use of Intelligence." <i>Intelligence and National Security</i> 9#3 (1994): 472-494.</li> <li>Porch, Douglas. <i>The French Secret Services: A History of French Intelligence from the Drefus Affair to the Gulf War</i> (Macmillan, 2003).</li> <li>Warner, Michael. <i>The Rise and Fall of Intelligence: An International Security History</i> (2014)</li></ul> <h2 id="references">References</h2> <ol> <li id="fn:1"><p>"Tracfin". <a href="https://www.economie.gouv.fr/tracfin/accueil-tracfin" target="_blank">https://www.economie.gouv.fr/tracfin/accueil-tracfin</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> </ol>