We are a unique service
We act in utmost secrecy to defend the vital interests of our nation.
We are the DGSE, the French secret service.
Attached to the ministry of the Armed Forces, we contribute to sovereignty.
Our mission is to collect intelligence all over the world in order to inform the highest government authorities.
Our 7,000 agents work in the shadows, to identify and anticipate the threats of all kinds. From counterterrorism to cyberdefence, they act to protect France and French nationals.
Our job is to obtain protected information, which cannot be accessed directly. We collect items of information, we corroborate and analyze them, in order to obtain strategic intelligence.
We forward to the government several thousand notes a year, in order to produce support in its decision-making and allow it to act with full sovereignty.
We have, outside our borders, our own capacity for action and disruption.
One of our strengths is that we master all methods of data collection. We derive our intelligence from our large-scale technical means, from the operations we conduct on the ground, from our network of human sources, and from our cooperation with other services. These four channels intersect and complement one another at the very heart of the DGSE. This feature provides us with high responsiveness and gives us the possibility to lead combined actions.
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Bring reliable intelligence to the government in order to shed light on its action.
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Detect and block, outside the national territory, the threats targeting France and the French nationals.
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Promote and protect national interests abroad at the political, economic and security levels.
We are here to explore the hidden side of issues and to provide political authorities with the best possible understanding of the situations they have to deal with.
the Director General
Our Director General
Bernard Emié was born in 1958. He graduated from the Paris Institute of Political Studies and he is a former student of the National School of Administration (ENA). Having chosen diplomacy, he first served in New Delhi, and then in Washington. In 1993, he joined the cabinet of the Foreign Affairs ministry, Alain Juppé, and then, he was appointed Deputy Diplomatic adviser to the President of the French Republic, Jacques Chirac.
In 2002, he moved to the post of Head of the North Africa and Middle East Department at the Quai d’Orsay. Very experienced in the management of regional crises, he notably served as Ambassador of France to Amman, Beirut, Ankara, London and Algiers. Since June 26, 2017, he has been the Director General for External Security.
Our Director General defines the strategy of the DGSE, in line with the guidelines he receives from the President of the Republic, the Prime Minister, the minister of Armed Forces and from some other members of the government.
He leads and coordinates the action of the five major directorates of the DGSE:
It is mainly in charge of human intelligence collection. Thanks to its case officers deployed abroad, it recruits and handles human sources (individuals) having access to sensitive data.
It is also in charge of analyzing and disseminating all the intelligence gathered by our human sources and our technical and operational means.
It contributes to the search for intelligence, thanks to its technical capacities based on innovative infrastructures, advanced technologies and great computing power. Its means allow it to intercept data, to decrypt them and also to bring technical support to operations. It also takes part in the development of France’s cyberdefence capabilities.
It takes part in the search for intelligence through operational means and has the capacity to project operatives, at anytime and anywhere, to carry out the assigned missions.
It is in charge of relations with the government, the other members of the French intelligence community and with foreign services. It also undertakes research in order to anticipate new emerging threats and to allow us to adapt to them.
It is responsible for human and financial resources as well as for the DGSE building strategy (construction, rehabilitation and maintenance of real property inventory). Also in charge of training officers, it brings logistic support to all directorates, while guaranteeing compliance with the legal framework.
Our operation and our organization are set out in detail in the decree of March 10, 2015.