The UK faces a new age of uncertainty in which threats are increasingly diffuse and technology-driven, the new Chief of MI6 will say in her first public speech, outlining how the service is adapting to a changing security environment.
Speaking from MI6 headquarters, Blaise Metreweli will describe what she characterises as a complex and interconnected threat landscape, ranging from hybrid and information warfare to terrorism and rapid technological disruption.
She will say the nature of conflict is being reshaped by hostile actors operating below the threshold of conventional warfare, according to the government.
Metreweli will argue that intelligence work must increasingly combine advanced technology with traditional human tradecraft. “Mastery of technology must infuse everything we do,” she will say, adding that MI6 officers must be as comfortable working with code as they are with human sources. According to the service, this approach is intended to ensure the organisation can keep pace with adversaries active across both digital and physical domains.
Russia will feature prominently in the speech, with Metreweli set to describe Moscow as posing an acute threat in the current hybrid environment. She will characterise Russia as “aggressive, expansionist, and revisionist” and will warn that disruptive activity linked to the Kremlin is likely to continue. “The export of chaos is a feature not a bug in the Russian approach to international engagement,” she will say, according to the prepared remarks.
She will also address UK support for Ukraine, stating that pressure applied in support of Kyiv will be sustained. “Putin should be in no doubt, our support is enduring,” she will say, according to the speech text.
The address will build on recent UK government actions aimed at countering what officials describe as information warfare and cyber threats. According to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, the UK has recently sanctioned several Russian entities linked to information operations, as well as two China-based companies accused of conducting cyber activities against the UK and its allies.
Metreweli will conclude by stating that human judgement will remain central in an era shaped by powerful technologies. “The defining challenge of the twenty-first century is not simply who wields the most powerful technologies, but who guides them with the greatest wisdom,” she will say, according to MI6.
She will add that decisions taken by governments, institutions and individuals will shape how societies respond to emerging threats. “It is not what we can do that defines us, but what we choose to do,” she will say, framing human choice as a determining factor in how the security environment develops.
