The French college the place spies go for coaching | EUROtoday

University professor Xavier Crettiez admits that he would not know the true names of lots of the college students on his course.

This is a extremely uncommon state of affairs on the earth of academia, however Prof Crettiez’s work is way from customary.

Instead, he helps prepare France’s spies.

“I rarely know the intelligence agents’ backgrounds when they are sent on the course, and I doubt the names I’m given are genuine anyway,” he says.

If you wished to create a setting for a spy college, then the campus of Sciences Po Saint-Germain on the outskirts of Paris appears a great match.

With dour, even gloomy-looking, early twentieth Century buildings surrounded by busy, drab roads and enormous, intimidating steel gates, it has a really discreet really feel.

Where it does stand out is its distinctive diploma that brings collectively extra typical college students of their early 20s, and lively members of the French secret providers, often between the ages of 35 and 50.

The course is named Diploma of Intelligence and Global Threats, which interprets as Diploma of Intelligence and Global Threats.

It was developed by the college in affiliation with the Academie du Renseignement, the coaching arm of the French secret providers.

This got here following a request from French authorities a decade in the past. After the 2015 terrorist assaults in Paris, the federal government went on a big recruitment drive throughout the French intelligence businesses.

It requested Sciences Po, one in every of France’s main universities, to give you a brand new course to each prepare potential new spies, and supply steady coaching for present brokers.

Large French corporations had been additionally fast to point out an curiosity, each in getting their safety employees onto the course, and snapping up lots of the youthful graduates.

The diploma is made up of 120 hours of classwork with modules unfold over 4 months. For exterior college students – the spies and people on placement from companies – it prices round €5,000 ($5,900; £4,400).

The core intention of the course is to establish threats wherever they’re, and the best way to monitor and overcome them. The key subjects embody the economics of organized crime, Islamic jihadism, enterprise intelligence gathering and political violence.

To attend one of many courses and converse to the scholars I needed to be vetted first by the French safety providers. The theme of the lesson I joined was “intelligence and over-reliance on technology”.

One of the scholars I converse to is a person in his 40s who goes by the title Roger. He tells me in very exact, clipped English that he’s funding banker. He provides: “I provide consultancy across west Africa, and I joined the course to provide risk assessments to my clients there.”

Prof Crettiez, who teaches political radicalisation, says there was an enormous growth within the French secret providers lately. And that there are actually round 20,000 brokers in what he known as the “inner circle”.

This is made up of the DGSE, which seems at issues abroad, and is the French equal of the UK’s MI6 or the US’s CIA. And the DGSI, which focuses on threats inside France, just like the UK’s MI5 or the US’s FBI.

But he says it isn’t nearly terrorism. “There are the two main security agencies, but also Tracfin an intelligence agency which specializes in money laundering.

“It is preoccupied with the surge in mafia exercise, particularly in southern France, together with corruption in the private and non-private sectors primarily resulting from huge earnings in unlawful drug trafficking.”

Other lecturers on the course include a DGSE official once located in Moscow, a former French ambassador to Libya, and a senior official from Tracfin. The head of security at the French energy giant EDF also runs one module.

The private sector’s interest in the diploma is said to be continuing to grow. Big businesses, especially in the defence and aerospace sector, but also French luxury goods firms, are increasingly keen to hire the students as they face relentless cybersecurity and spying threats as well as sabotage.

Recently graduates have been snapped up by the French mobile phone operator Orange, aerospace and defence giant Thales, and LVHM, which owns everything from Louis Vuitton and Dior to champagne brands Dom Perignon and Krug.

Twenty eight students are enrolled in this year’s class. Six are spies. You can tell who they are, as they are the ones huddled together during class breaks, away from the young students, and not too overwhelmed with joy when I approach them.

Without saying their exact roles, and with arms crossed, one says the course is considered a fast-track stepping stone for a promotion from the office to field work. Another says he gets fresh ideas being in this academic environment. They signed the day’s attendance form with just their first names.

One of the younger students, Alexandre Hubert, 21, says he wanted a deeper understanding of the looming economic war between Europe and China. “Looking at intelligence gathering from a James Bond viewpoint shouldn’t be related, the job is analysing danger and understanding the best way to counteract it,” he tells me.

Another class member, Valentine Guillot, also 21, says she was inspired by the popular, fictional French TV spy drama Le Bureau. “Coming right here to find this world which I did not know something about aside from the TV collection has been a exceptional alternative, and now I’m very eager to affix the safety providers.”

Nearly half of the students in the class are in fact women. And this is a relatively recent development according to one of the lecturers, Sebastien-Yves Laurent, a specialist on technology in spying.

“Women’s curiosity in intelligence gathering is new,” he says. “They have an interest as a result of they suppose it can present for a greater world.

“And if there is one common thread amongst all these young students it’s that they are very patriotic and that is new compared to 20 years ago.

If you are keen to apply to get on the course, French citizenship is an essential requirement, although some dual citizens are accepted.

Yet Prof Crettiez says he has to be wary. “I often get functions from very enticing Israeli and Russian ladies with superb CVs. Unsurprisingly they’re binned instantly.”

In a recent group photo of the class you can immediately tell who the spies are – they had their backs to the camera.

While all the students and professional spies I met are trim and athletic, Prof Crettiez is also keen to dispel the myth of James Bond-like adventure.

“Few new recruits will find yourself within the discipline,” he says. “Most French intelligence businesses jobs are desk certain.”