Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty
The world’s leading spy agencies have been forced to reckon with the consequences of two major wars on different continents, raging simultaneously.
With Gaza descending into a hellscape of death and destruction under Israeli bombardment in recent weeks, and Europe’s largest ground war since World War II ongoing in Ukraine—intelligence agencies around the globe are reacting to the turmoil and shifting priorities of the moment.
In the Middle East, Israel’s world-renowned intelligence agencies have been lambasted for failing to foil Hamas’ planned attacks on Oct. 7, in which 1,200 people were killed and 200 others were taken hostage. In Russia, espionage operations abroad have suffered greatly following a tidal wave of expulsions by leaders of Western countries targeting Kremlin diplomats and suspected spies. China’s intelligence apparatus, meanwhile, appears to be expanding—likely to the detriment of the U.S., a longstanding target of Beijing’s espionage operations.