List of intelligence agencies of France
This is a list of current and former French intelligence agencies.
Currently active
- DGSE: General Directorate for External Security - Direction générale de la sécurité extérieure. It is the military external intelligence agency, which succeeded to the Service de Documentation Extérieure et de Contre-Espionnage (SDECE) in 1982 (itself preceded by the Direction Générale des Études et Recherches (DGER), dependent of the BCRA.
- DCRI: Central Directorate of Interior Intelligence - Direction centrale du renseignement intérieur. Founded in 2008 by the merger of the RG and the DST, it is tasked with counter-espionage, counter-terrorism and the surveillance of potential threats on French territory.
- DRM: Directorate of Military Intelligence - Direction du renseignement militaire. It was created by Socialist Interior Minister Pierre Joxe in 1992, after the Gulf War, to centralize military intelligence information.
- DPSD: Directorate for Defense Protection and Security - Direction de la protection et de la sécurite de la défense. It is a military intelligence agency, charged of counter-espionage.
- BRGE: Intelligence and Electronic Warfare Brigade - Brigade de renseignement et de guerre électronique.
- ANSSI: French Network and Information Security Agency - Agence Nationale de la Sécurité des Systèmes d'Information.
- DCPJ: Judicial Police - Direction centrale de la police judiciaire.
- CNCIS: National Commission for the Control of Security Interceptions - Commission nationale de contrôle des interceptions de sécurité.
Former agencies
- BCRA: Bureau Central de Renseignements et d'Action was an intelligence agency created during World War II in 1940.
- DST: Directorate of Territorial Security - Direction de la surveillance du territoire. It was an intelligence agency of the Minister of Interior, charged of counter-espionage (in particular in economic matters), and, since the end of the Cold War, also of anti-terrorism issues. It was abolished in 2008 and merged into the DCRI.
- RG: General Intelligence Directorate - Direction centrale des renseignements généraux. It was the intelligence agency of the French police, directed by the Minister of the Interior. It was charged with overlooking gambling activities, criminal activities, and political radicals (far right and far left). It also used to have as mission to overlook French political parties, but officially is not charged with this anymore. It was merged into the Direction centrale du renseignement intérieur in 2008.