The DGSE: A Concise History of France's Foreign Intelligence Service (Concise Histories of Intelligence)

The first history of France's present-day foreign intelligence service to be published in English

France's foreign intelligence service for espionage, analysis, covert action, and security is the formidable Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure (DGSE). The DGSE's remit spans a wide range of threats, including foreign interference, terrorism and international crime, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and the defense of French economic interests.

Through an examination of official reports, rare declassified documents, interviews, memoirs, and French secondary sources, Van Puyvelde offers an accessible short introduction to the DGSE. Thematic chapters in The DGSE provide insight into the agency's foundations, organization, leadership, activities, international partners, cultural representations, legacies, and future. The service has had a reputation for audacious operations and shadowy influence within the French state and internationally. Fiascoes like the bombing of Greenpeace's Rainbow Warrior tarnished its reputation; but in recent years, the DGSE has reformed and has distanced itself from its checkered past. Van Puyvelde's innovative framework shows how the DGSE has successfully adapted to twenty-first-century security requirements.

This first history of the DGSE in English will be of great interest to general readers of spy nonfiction and to scholars and students of intelligence studies, French history, and international affairs.

Damien Van Puyvelde is associate professor and head of the Intelligence and Security Research Group at Leiden University. He is the author of Outsourcing US Intelligence; co-author of Cybersecurity: Politics, Governance and Conflict in Cyberspace; and co-editor of Covert Action: National Approaches to Unacknowledged Intervention (2025).