New MI6 head Blaise Metreweli, the first female appointee to the role, has been cast as a DEI hire in sections of the media. After all, she was reportedly one of two female contenders for the role, while her predecessor, Richard Moore, had made gender diversity a priority within the intelligence service.

Yet Metreweli actually has a background which may prove extremely helpful in forging closer ties between MI6 and its American counterpart, the Central Intelligence Agency. When she comes to visit the CIA headquarters in Northern Virginia, she will pass by a red phone box gifted by her predecessors at MI6. Today, that phone box is as dated as a James Bond film, and one of the biggest challenges faced by contemporary spies is how to operate in a world where everybody has high-tech gadgets in their pockets and entire countries are under surveillance.

Metreweli currently holds the title of “Q”, heading up MI6’s technology division. This experience could be invaluable as Britain and America enter an uncertain new era, defined by disputes over intelligence-sharing and shifting international commitments.

Since the election of Donald Trump last November, European intelligence services have worried about future ties with their American equivalents. The new White House administration has redefined America’s connection with Europe, centring foreign policy around national interests rather than longstanding diplomatic agreements. British security specialists wonder about the willingness of American counterparts to share intelligence, while CIA officers have left or been fired in droves this year. Any perceived agency unwillingness to further probe Trump’s Russian sympathies could cause friction with British intelligence officers.

Metreweli will therefore play a key role in shoring up the fraying “Special Relationship”. Since joining the intelligence services in 1999, the new MI6 head has operated in the Middle East and Europe, as well serving in a director-level role at MI5. She spoke to the Financial Times under a pseudonym in 2022, stating that being female helped her build connections in her line of work because regular expectations “drop away”. Women, in her view, “are the liminal ones” in that space.

Trump, for his part, named a female director, Gina Haspel, to the CIA’s top post during his first term. Similarly, the President has appointed Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence this time round. Recently, however, the new CIA director John Ratcliffe has played down the importance of diversity recruitment programmes and cut their staff.

Holden Triplett, a co-founder of risk-management consultancy Trenchcoat Advisors, has worked in FBI offices in Beijing and Moscow and served as director of counter-intelligence at the National Security Council under President Trump. An understanding of technology is crucial to the role, he says. ”Ubiquitous technical surveillance”, as he puts it, referring to states such as China where complete coverage ensures everyone is constantly watched, makes it hard to spy: surveillance cameras “don’t get tired or bored”. Thanks to her experience as Q, Metreweli can help British and American agents alike learn some of the tricks of dealing with this new reality.

Those who work in the two countries’ intelligence services agree on the importance of the relationship. Britons have a unique historical understanding of global threats, and the Americans have extraordinary resources. Working together makes both services stronger, and so in her new role Metreweli will have to make her friendship with the US a top priority.

---

Tara McKelvey is a former BBC correspondent and Radio Free Asia investigative editor who writes about national security and spies.

Tara_Mckelvey

---