France’s DGSE marks a decade of strategic outreach, blending intelligence operations with academic collaboration.
NEW DELHI: Earlier this month, France’s external intelligence agency, the Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure (DGSE), marked the tenth anniversary of its internal strategic forum, known as Interaxions, with a discreet but significant gathering in Paris.
Hosted by DGSE chief Nicolas Lerner, the event brought together national security analysts in what was a quiet but purposeful step toward institutionalising deeper engagement between French intelligence and the intellectual capital that France possesses.
Lerner’s remarks at the event, according to those present, made it clear that the DGSE sees immense value in integrating experts and scholarly insight into its operational and strategic environment—a sign of confidence that the French intelligence chief has in the workings of its agencies and the belief that they will not be ‘corrupted’ by external thoughts.
This French move reflects a broader global trend of leading intelligence agencies choosing to open selective, controlled windows to academic and policy ecosystems—not to compromise secrecy, but to complement it with foresight and flexibility. In the United States, the CIA has built an extensive academic interface over decades through institutions like the Sherman Kent School for Intelligence Analysis and the Center for the Study of Intelligence.
These bodies not only train analysts but also serve as nodes for dialogue with universities, think tanks, and public policy scholars—often through classified fellowships or published, declassified research. These institutions serve as a valuable resource pool for the CIA in multiple ways. In the United Kingdom, MI6 retains its traditional discretion but also benefits from institutional links with Whitehall’s Joint Intelligence Organisation and strategic forums like RUSI and Chatham House.
In a notable move earlier this year, the British government appointed Blaise Florence Metreweli, a 47-year-old veteran with 26 years of experience, as the new head of MI6. Her appointment has been widely interpreted as a forwardlooking gesture—symbolising a generational handover suited to the complexities of 21st-century intelligence. In contrast, India’s external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), has historically followed a different—and deeply considered—path. Built in a post-Partition, Cold War environment of high-risk regional instability, R&AW was deliberately designed to operate at arm’s length from public institutions, in a zone of necessary opacity. It has, over the decades, earned a reputation for operational discipline and institutional silence— often viewed as a strength in the Indian strategic tradition.
Even today, 57 years after its inception, the agency’s only public-facing event— the R. N. Kao Memorial Lecture, held annually in Delhi in memory of its founder—is a closed-door, invite-only affair. It is mostly a mundane event, especially when one considers the dynamic nature of the agency’s work, most of which never sees daylight. Within R&AW itself, senior leadership continues to be drawn from a generation of officers who entered public service at a time when India’s governance infrastructure was still largely analogue.
Their experience has guided the agency through some of the most complex national security challenges India has faced. However, with the acceleration of artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and multi-domain cyber warfare, some experts have raised the question of whether new technological fluency and external linkages may eventually need to be incorporated into India’s intelligence architecture— not as replacements, but as enablers. Intelligence agencies involving journalists, domain experts, and academics in discussions for a richer understanding of the domestic and global order stopped being taboo in the West long ago.
Even the traditional adversary, Pakistan, has shed the fear of allowing intelligence agencies to be ‘influenced’ by non-intelligence entities. India’s current model has served it with quiet distinction for over five decades. But as global agencies adopt new frameworks of engagement and signal openness to generational shifts, there may be space for India’s intelligence community to evolve on its own terms— building on its past while remaining responsive to a rapidly changing threat matrix.
France’s revival of its DGSE think tank, MI6’s generational pivot, and the CIA’s institutional outreach are not templates for replication but offer valuable reference points. For India, the real opportunity lies not in imitation but in adapting what works—carefully, thoughtfully, and in alignment with its strategic culture.
