10 Top Intelligence Agencies in the World

This article will highlight some of the most notable intelligence agencies worldwide, focusing on their missions, methods, and historical significance.

Top Intelligence Agencies Of The World: Intelligence is the key to victory, the knowledge about the enemy and his vitals and the effectiveness of such information makes the difference. Intelligence gathering has been on for centuries and the way of collecting them has changed over the years.

Many wars have been won and governments were toppled because of the acts of some masterpiece of work of intelligence agencies. We bring you a few agencies that are most dreaded in the world for their actions.

Intelligence agencies are instrumental to the functioning of governments around the globe, with roles that span from safeguarding national security, undertaking counter-intelligence, executing covert operations, and gathering information about foreign and domestic threats.

Top Intelligence Agencies Of The World

1. CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the U.S. Government, tasked with gathering, processing and analysing national security information from around the world, primarily through the use of human intelligence (HUMINT).

They provide intelligence to the president in order to make him take important decisions regarding wars and matter of national security

The CIA has its own university to train agents to infiltrate, gather information etc.

It is said that some agents are even picked at high schools. The training is very unique such that the agents can defeat a polygraphic test too.

COUNTRY: United states of America

IN ACTION SINCE: 1947

HEADQUARTERS: langley, Virginia

MAJOR OPS: assassination of Osama bin laden, cold war, fall of USSR, recent times IRAQ war, Afghan war, Syria war

2. MI-6

The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 (Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the British intelligence agency which supplies the British Government with foreign  intelligence.MI6 operates under the formal direction of the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) alongside the internal Security Service (MI5), the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) and Defence Intelligence (DI). The bureau specialised in foreign espionage and internal counter-espionage activities.

COUNTRY: United Kingdom

IN ACTION SINCE: 1909

HEADQUARTERS: London, UK

MAJOR OPS: world war I & II, Enigma Code breaking during world war II, cold war ops against the USSR, 1991 august coup, Libyan civil war

3. FEDERAL SECURITY SERVICES

The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation is the principal security agency of Russia and the main successor agency to the USSR’s Committee of State Security (KGB). Its main responsibilities are within the country and include counter-intelligence, internal and border security, counter-terrorism, and surveillance. The agency has changed a lot from how the earlier KGB functioned. The Putin govt bought in a lot of reforms to the way the agency will work and refined the areas in which it shall work.By 2008, the agency had one Director, two First Deputy Directors and 5 Deputy Directors. It had the following 9 divisions:

• Counter-Espionage
• Service for Defense of Constitutional Order and Fight against Terrorism
• Border Service
• Economic Security Service
• Current Information and International Links
• Organisational and Personnel Service
• Monitoring Department
• Scientific and Technical Service
• Organizational Security Service

COUNTRY: Russia

IN ACTION SINCE: 1995

HEADQUARTERS: Moscow, Russia

MAJOR OPS: cold war, 1991 coup, lebonan crisis, Syrian war

4. RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS WING

The Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW or RAW) is the primary foreign intelligence agency of India. It was established in 1968 following the intelligence failures of the Sino-Indian and Indo-Pakistani wars, which persuaded the Government of India to create a specialised, independent agency dedicated to foreign intelligence gathering.Previously, both domestic and foreign intelligence had been the purview of the Intelligence Bureau. The agency’s primary function is gathering foreign intelligence, engaging in counter-terrorism, promoting counter-proliferation, advising Indian policymakers, and advancing India’s foreign strategic interests.It is also involved in the security of India’s nuclear program.

The direct recruitment at Class I executive level is from Civil services officers undergoing Foundation course at Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration. At the end of the course, R&AW conducts a campus interview. Based on a selection of psychological tests and the interview, candidates are inducted into R&AW for a lien period of one year. Other recruits are from the IPS and the armed forces. The RAW has its own training facilities while the field training is given by the Indian army at the IMA. Though very young it is considered as of the finest in the field of intel.

COUNTRY: India

IN ACTION SINCE: 1968

HEADQUARTERS: New Delhi

MAJOR OPS: the creation of Bangladesh, op smiling buddha, op megdhoot, Kargil war, Balochistan operations.

5. MOSSAD

Mossad short for HaMossad leModiʿin uleTafkidim Meyuḥadim , meaning “Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations” is the national intelligence agency of Israel. It is one of the main entities in the Israeli Intelligence Community, along with Aman (military intelligence) and Shin Bet (internal security).Mossad is responsible for intelligence collection, covert operations, and counterterrorism, as well as bringing Jews to Israel from countries where official Aliyah agencies are forbidden, and protecting Jewish communities. Its director reports directly to the Prime Minister. The Mossad is believed to have a unique intelligence tactic which may seem absurd to many ie the 11th man, who is supposed to oppose and find reason for the same in any matter. This gives the agency to counter think every op that it takes. Thus, it makes and looks for a way to break it own ops and make them fool proof.

COUNTRY: Israel

IN ACTION SINCE: 1949

HEADQUARTERS: Tel Aviv

MAJOR OPS: 1960 Adolf Eichmann, Munich Olympics ’72, 1996, op diamond 1966

6. FEDERAL INTELLIGENCE SERVICE

The Federal Intelligence Service or Bundesnachrichtendienst or BND is the foreign intelligence agency of Germany, directly subordinated to the Chancellor’s Office. The BND acts as an early warning system to alert the German government to threats to German interests from abroad. It depends heavily on wiretapping and electronic surveillance of international communications. It collects and evaluates information on a variety of areas such as international non-state terrorism, weapons of mass destruction proliferation and illegal transfer of technology, organised crime, weapons and drug trafficking, money laundering, illegal migration and information warfare.

The BND is responsible for both civil and foreign intel.

COUNTRY: Germany

IN ACTION SINCE: 1956

HEADQUARTERS: Berlin

MAJOR OPS: Munich Olympics, Libyan bombings, Iraq invasion, Kosovo war

7. MINISTRY OF STATE SECURITY

The Ministry of State Security (MSS) is the intelligence agency and security agency of the People’s Republic of China and is responsible for counterintelligence, foreign intelligence and political security. The MSS is under the control of the Chinese govt and is very silent in its ops. They infiltrate other nation o cause instability and finally submit to the Chinese policy. The CDSA ie central department of social affairs is the predecessor of the MSS. The MSS is  compared on par with KGB of the USSR.

COUNTRY: China

IN ACTION SINCE: 1983

HEADQUARTERS: Beijing

MAJOR OPS: Korean war, fall of Taiwan, cold war

8. INTER-SERVICES INTELLIGENCE

The DG for Inter-Services Intelligence is the premier military-operated intelligence service of Pakistan, operationally responsible for providing critical national security and intelligence assessment to the Government of Pakistan. The ISI is the largest of the three intelligence services of Pakistan, the others being the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Military Intelligence (MI). The agency is battle proven for some of its niche work in the Asian region and relied upon for intelligence by the western countries to counter the Taliban and other terror networks. India has a sour relation with them as they consider most of its terrorist ops are an act of ISI. The recruitment for the agency is from he armed forces of the country. The different departments of the agency are :

• Covert Action Division
• Joint Intelligence
• Joint Intelligence Bureau
• Joint Counterintelligence Bureau
• Joint Intelligence North
• Joint Intelligence Miscellaneous
• Joint Signal Intelligence Bureau
• Joint Intelligence Technical
• SS Directorate
• Political Internal Division

COUNTRY: PAKISTAN

IN ACTION SINCE: 1948

HEADQUARTERS: Islamabad

MAJOR OPS: soviet-afghan war, Indo-Pak war 1971, afghan war 2001, Kargil war

9. AUSTRALIAN SECRET INTELLIGENCE SERVICE

The Australian Secret Intelligence Service is the national foreign intelligence agency of Australia. It is responsible for overseas intelligence collection, including both counter-intelligence and liaising with the intelligence agencies of other countries. In these roles, ASIS is comparable to the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) and the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

COUNTRY: Australia

IN ACTION SINCE: 1952

HEADQUARTERS: Canberra

10. DIRECTORATE-GENERAL FOR EXTERNAL SECURITY

The General Directorate for External Security is France’s external intelligence agency. The French equivalent of the United Kingdom’s MI6 and the United States’ CIA, the DSGE operates under the direction of the French Ministry of Defence and works alongside its domestic counterpart, the DGSI (Directorate-General for Internal Security), in providing intelligence and safeguarding national security, notably by performing paramilitary and counterintelligence operations abroad. The DGSE has multiple divisions ie

• Directorate of Administration
• Directorate of Strategy
• Directorate of Intelligence
• Political intelligence service
• Security intelligence service
• Technical Directorate (Responsible for electronic intelligence and devices)
• Directorate of Operations
• Action Division (Responsible for clandestine operations)

COUNTRY: France

IN ACTION SINCE: 1982

HEADQUARTERS: Paris

MAJOR OPS: Soviet- Afghan war, op satanic, Infiltration in al-Qaeda,