Chief of the UK’s foreign intelligence agency Sir Alex Younger said civilisation as we know it is in a more dangerous state now than during the terrifying period of tensions between the Soviet Union and the US and its allies. In the first time ever that a serving chief of MI6 has given an interview, he told Sky News the world is as fragile as it has been “at least since the end of the Cold War”. Assessing tensions with China, Russia, Iran and most recently Turkey after it launched an offensive at the Syrian border, he added that it “does feel like we’re at some sort of high point”.
He said: “I think that there is a lot of brinkmanship going on.
“I think we (MI6) have got an important role to play in making sure that our positioning doesn’t end in miscalculation, and properly understanding the motivations of people who are presenting extremely hard-line positions in public but are likely to be motivated by a whole set of much more complex issues in private.”
Sir Alex also acknowledged errors when asked about intelligence failings leading to the Iraq War during the Blair years in power.
He said: “Clearly we’ve got to be able to internalise the lessons of the past and move on in a way that we learn from them and where we can avoid any repetition of mistakes.”
Sir Alex was known as ‘C’ in the secret service and led the organisation under the Cameron, May and new Johnson Governments.
He added: “You’ve got to be really clear what mode you are in, and in fact this is one of the big lessons of the past. As intelligence professionals we are habitually very, very disciplined in distinguishing between fact and analysis.
“That discipline runs right up to my relationship with the leadership of the country.”
Sir Alex now sits on the National Security Council and spoke of how the UK’s other intelligence, security and military chiefs do not always agree with one another.
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He said: “What you’re looking for is an environment where we can express our opinions honestly and where it would be odd if there wasn’t divergence between them, and for there to be a really active debate and for us to get to what we think is the right answer or to a consensus, and then we go with it.”
His words come after details of past contingency planning for World War 3 were revealed, with the UK Government planning to cut phone lines should a nuclear attack take place.
During the Sixties, the world arguably came the closest to all-out nuclear war in its history as the US and Soviet Union tussled over ultimate supremacy both on the ground and in space.
These tensions arguably reached their pinnacle in 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis, after Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev agreed to fulfil Fidel Castro’s request to place nuclear missiles in Cuba.
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The discovery ultimately led to a 13-day stand-off as the pair both threatened to obliterate each other with nuclear warheads and the Government, under the leadership of Harold Wilson, were also put on alert.
Historian Julie McDowall revealed the chilling knock-on effects of this period during “Dan Snow’s History Hit“ podcast earlier this month, exposing the Government’s plan should Britain come under fire.
She said: “The Government, of course, had plenty of bunkers all over the country for regional seats.
“The idea for that was, after a nuclear war, you assume London is gone, and so there would be no Westminster, no Whitehall.
So it [the Government] would have to scatter across the country and break up into little chunks and each region would have its own bunker filled with local counsellors, local politicians and one Cabinet minister who would effectively be the Prime Minister of that little region.
“In the advance of nuclear war and the run-up to it, the Government hoped there would be a period of international tension or even a conventional war that eventually turned nuclear.”