According to The Times and The Independent in the UK on the 10th, the final three interviews for the replacement of Richard Moore, who is scheduled to retire this fall, five years after taking office, were all women.
There have been two female directors in the UK’s domestic intelligence agency (MI5), but MI6 has no female director with 17 male directors so far. MI6 director “M,” played by actor Judi Dench in the movie “007” series, is believed to be modeled after Stella Leamington, the first female director of MI5.
Two of the final candidates are MI6 insiders, and their names have not been disclosed as they are currently serving as intelligence officers. The other is Barbara Woodward, ambassador to the United Nations, who has no experience in intelligence, and is known to be the most likely candidate.
Ambassador Woodward joined the Foreign Office in 1994 and is currently the highest-ranking woman in the Foreign Office. He served as the international director of the British Border Agency and ambassador to China between 2015 and 2020. After graduating from St. Andrews University, he received a master’s degree in international relations at Yale University in the United States and is known to have experience teaching English in China.
However, the media reported that during his tenure as ambassador to China, he refrained from criticizing China, including the suppression of human rights of minorities such as the Xinjiang Uyghurs. Representative Ian Duncan Smith, a former Conservative Party leader, said, “This appointment is a very important decision for our security, and the ambiguous attitude toward the enormous threat posed by China will be a disaster for Britain.”
The Times said, “MI6 was once praised as the world’s best small intelligence gathering agency along with Israel’s Mossad, but there are concerns that the British Information and Communication Agency (GCHQ) is currently struggling in a world of mass intelligence gathering.” A former intelligence official told the media, “They are lost. It is becoming an increasingly cautious foreign ministry. It seems that they have forgotten that their mission is to handle, operate, and recruit agents. Human information is essential, but when that habit goes away, it becomes really difficult.”
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is set to make a final decision on the appointment with the advice of a committee of senior government figures, including Foreign Secretary David Lammy and national security adviser Jonathan Powell.
EJ SONG
US ASIA JOURNAL
