Blaise Metreweli | Licensed to spy

The best way for real to reflect reel could well be a spy thriller, arguably. James Bond’s ‘M’ is now ‘C’, a woman, powerful and savvy enough to take on the world. And in a world where, increasingly, fact seems like fiction and fiction, fact, Britain has appointed a woman to its secret intelligence agency. Seldom have the two overlapped so effortlessly as when Blaise Metreweli was named as the first woman chief of Britain’s MI6.

Ms. Metreweli will be the 18th Chief of the MI6, coming in at a time when geopolitics is more in tune with a Mission Impossible world than the racy, but dated intrigue of the Cold War espionage that James Bond played amidst. Adversaries have changed, goalposts have shifted, and the tools of war constitute even more fancy technology than Bond’s most creative tech guy ‘Q’ could even fathom. Ironically enough, Ms. Metreweli is currently Director General ‘Q’ in MI6, responsible for technology and innovation. Earlier she was with the MI5, Britain secret service agency for domestic intelligence.

Ms. Metreweli, who will succeed Sir Richard Moore, will be referred to as ‘C’, as all chiefs of the MI6 are, going back to the initial used by the agency’s first head, Captain Sir Mansfield Smith-Cumming.

The main mission of the MI6 or the Secret Intelligence Service is to collect foreign intelligence for the United Kingdom. U.K.’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer, said: “The historic appointment of Blaise Metreweli comes at a time when the work of our intelligence services has never been more vital. The United Kingdom is facing threats on an unprecedented scale — be it aggressors who send their spy ships to our waters or hackers whose sophisticated cyber plots seek to disrupt our public services.”

While a female ‘M’ played fabulously by a formidable Dame Judi Dench dominates recent public memory, it was only in 1995 that, inspired by Stella Rimington (the first female head of MI5), ‘M’ became female.

It was about the same time that Ms. Metreweli, born in 1977, entered Cambridge University, to study anthropology. She graduated in 1998, and as per official records, joined the MI6 the very next year.

She reportedly spent her early career in West Asia, and has since, worked as an intelligence officer, handling counter-terrorism on the field, and taking on director level roles at the MI5.

Brush with technology

In her role as ‘Q’, she addressed sophisticated threats including Chinese biometric surveillance and cyberattacks from Russia.

Since her headship was confirmed, Ms. Metreweli’s felicity with technology has been flaunted as a key strength in leading espionage operations in an increasingly ‘post-truth’ world, where guns and poisons are no longer the only weapons of choice.

The news of her appointment has been welcomed, by and large, not only because she is the first woman head of the MI6 in 116 years, but also because she is perceived as ‘one of their own’, one who has risen through the ranks.

Ms. Metreweli too acknowledged her kinship with the agency: “I am proud and honoured to be asked to lead my Service. MI6 plays a vital role — with MI5 and GCHQ — in keeping the British people safe and promoting U.K. interests overseas. I look forward to continuing that work alongside the brave officers and agents of MI6 and our many international partners.”

U.K.’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy too echoed this sense of propinquity: “With a wealth of experience from across our national security community, Blaise is the ideal candidate to lead MI6 into the future. At a time of global instability and emerging security threats, where technology is power and our adversaries are working ever closer together, Blaise will ensure the U.K. can tackle these challenges head on.”

Clearly, with Ms. Metreweli, the U.K. has made a studied choice. Perhaps we must let ‘M’ have the last word, slightly altered. As Dench tells Daniel Craig’s James Bond in Skyfall, “she knows the rules of the game. She has been playing it long enough.”