Introduction
It's the foreign intelligence service of France. It is ova 80 years old!!! They have several missions and there are a handful of divisions. Their headquarters (HQ) is in Paris. More than 4,000 people work for for this organization and its budget is broken up in 3 different ways. Intelligence is gathered into primary ways, which are HUMINT & SIGINT. They have done many operations ova the decades.
History
DGSE is a acronym that means Directorate-General for External Security. It all started in 1943; it's name changed several times. The person who started DGSE was fired 4 abuses and nepotism. The new director fired most of workers and brought more intelligence agencies under his wing.
The KGB may have infiltrated them in 1950's and the CIA sometimes were @ odds with them. In 1985 they sunk a ship that was protesting France nuclear weapon test on a island in Polynesia. They spied on U.S. business men in 1990's that were in France.
Divisions
There are 5 directorates.
Administration: It is responsible 4 the human, financial and real assets.
Strategy: It creates the game plan of DGSE. They make sure the info is legit.
Intelligence: They are in charge of finding targets to gather intel from.
Technical: They do cyberdefense and develop technology 4 operations.
Operations: Their duty is getting HUMINT and covert actions.
Missions
Cyberdefense: They identify the people trying to attack France's cybersecurity. They also find out why they are attacking and how to stop them.
Geopolitics: They figure out what countries or organizations threaten the stability of France. Then they'll find ways to neutralize them.
Counterespionage: They find out who is spying on France and the methods they are using to do so. Then they tell law enforcement, so they can arrest them.
Counterproliferation: They find out who is acquiring weapons of mass destruction illegally and put a stop to it.
Counterterrorism: Their duty is find out about terrorists that threaten French interests and eliminate them.
Headquarter
It's located in Paris and its codename is CAT. There's a supercomputer in the basement. It collects the most intelligence data in Europe after the GCHQ. They give that data to 4 directorates, Paris police and a service that stops illegal finances. A new HQ is suppose to be built in 2030.
Size & Budget
There may be ova 4,000 people employed in the agency. Sometimes French nationals that live aboard gives intel to a operative. Those sources are called Honorable Correspondent. The parliament usually give the agency half a billion Euros. The prime minister gives extra funds 4 certain operations.
Operations
In 2024 the DGSE and the CIA gave intelligence to COS that led to the death of a terrorist leader.
In 2014 they put hidden cameras in Cozy Bear. It was in Russia and controlled by the SVR.
In 2004 two French journalists were recused in Iraq.
In the 1990's Afghan training camps were infiltrated.
In the 1980's a source named Farewell gave them intel on Soviet spying of Western European countries.
In 1979 a African emperor was assassinated and pro-French government came to power.
They did many other operations, but this will suffice.
Conclusion
It has been around for 81 years!!! It got sweet divisions and missions. It HQ is in Paris and it has many employees. It got a lot $ to work with. It has done many missions in @ least 3 continents. I heard it was the most high tech spy agency.
References
https://en.wikipedia.org/
https://www.dgse.gouv.fr/