Sir Alexander William YoungerKCMG (born 4 July 1963) is a British intelligence officer who served as the Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6),[1][2] from 2014 to 2020.[3] In April 2019, the government extended Younger's contract to maintain stability through the Brexit negotiations,[4] which made him the longest-serving MI6 chief in 50 years.[5]
Younger was sponsored by the British Army through university. He was commissioned into the Royal Scots on 5 September 1986 as a second lieutenant (on probation).[11] As a university candidate he was a full-time student at university and trained in his spare time. On 10 December 1986, he transferred to the Scots Guards.[12][13]
On 16 June 1987, his commission was confirmed and dated to 5 September 1986; this signified the start of his full-time military service. He was granted seniority in the rank of second lieutenant from 9 April 1983. He was promoted to lieutenant, which was backdated to 5 September 1986, and was granted seniority from 9 April 1985.[14] He was promoted to captain on 5 April 1989.[15] On 10 April 1990, he transferred to the Regular Army Reserve of Officers, thereby ending his active military service.[16]
Younger joined MI6 in 1991.[2] He joined the service at the same time as Richard Tomlinson, who in his book The Big Breach, portrayed him as "Spencer", a St Andrews graduate and former Scots Guard who was recruited while working for the Halo Trust in Afghanistan.[17] Younger served in Vienna, Dubai and Afghanistan. Returning to the UK he became Head of Counter-Terrorism in 2009, in which role he was involved in security for the London Olympics 2012. He became deputy director in 2012, before being nominated as Chief in October 2014, succeeding Sir John Sawers on his retirement.[18]
In a leaked list of 160 MI6 agents—which was originally believed to have been released by Richard Tomlinson, although government officials subsequently "acknowledged that the list did not come from Mr Tomlinson"—Alex Younger is mentioned as having been posted to Vienna in 1995.[19] As of 2015, Younger was paid a salary of between £160,000 and £164,999 by MI6, making him one of the 328 most highly paid people in the British public sector at that time.[20]
Notable speeches and interviews
Russia
In 2016 Younger said cyber-attacks, propaganda and subversion from hostile states pose a fundamental threat to European democracies including the UK. In a rare speech by an MI6 chief while in office, Younger did not specifically name Russia, but left no doubt that this was the target of his remarks.[21][22] In 2020 Younger described continuing Russian ambition to subvert Western democratic process through disinformation, which he ascribed to Russian fear of the quality of Western institutions and alliances. He advocated strong defences but warned that we should not magnify the effect of these relatively crude and unsophisticated attacks by exaggerating their effect. Nor should Western democracies allow these attacks to diminish their own responsibility for dealing with the things that caused division in their own countries. "The Russians did not create the things that divide us, we did that to ourselves".[23]
China and technology
In December 2018, Younger raised concerns about Huawei's role in the UK's new 5G mobile network.[24] In 2020 he forecast continuing ideological divergence between the West and China given the premium that the Chinese Communist Party placed in preserving their interests. He said that this would have significant security consequences that the West should anticipate and organise against. But it should also recognise the need for coexistence given that two value systems were like to occupy one planet for the foreseeable future. He also called for the West to refocus on its own strengths: the quality of its alliances and innovation, rather than simply lamenting the rise of a competitor.[23]
Human rights
In an October 2020 interview with Angelina Jolie in Time magazine, Younger voiced fears that the international consensus on human rights norms had broken down. It was now up to like-minded liberal democracies to create consequences for the worst violators. Separately, he acknowledged that Afghanistan's future had to be determined by politics but warned that the country had changed and that the Taliban should understand that Afghans, particularly women, would have no tolerance for a reversion to the way things were.[25]
Academic freedom
In December 2018 Younger gave a rare speech at the University of St Andrews, making emphasis of the need for fourth-generation espionage and fusing human skills with technical innovation. This was the second public speech in the four years since his appointment as chief of the MI6.[26] During the speech Younger addressed the case of Matthew Hedges, a British university student who was arrested in the UAE. Younger said he was perplexed by what has happened and that there were some frank conversations ahead between Britain and the UAE.[27] Hedges was later pardoned by UAE President Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan and reunited with his wife in the UK.[28]
Counter terrorism
In September 2020, speaking to the Financial Times, Younger was asked if the UK had wrongly prioritised counter terrorism at the expense of coverage of Russia and China. Younger said that he supported the government's very low tolerance for instability driven by terrorism because it was such a gross violation of social norms. He described the recent destruction of the ISIS caliphate in Syria as a "High Point", but he warned that terrorism had now become more autonomous and spontaneous, and remained lethal.[29]
On 16 February 2019, when interviewed by the British press, Younger was asked about the wives of British ISIS fighters stuck in Syria after the fall of the caliphate. He acknowledged their plight, but warned that such people would have acquired skills and connections that made them dangerous to the public. Home Secretary Sajid Javid later chose to strip Shamima Begum, who had married an ISIS fighter, of her British citizenship, leaving the future of her and her son unclear.[30]Richard Barrett, who is a former director of global counter-terrorism at MI6, told the press that Begum should be given a chance to rebuild her life with her son. He also suggested it would be unreasonable to expect the Syrian Defence Force to look after her indefinitely.[31] Barrett stated that British society should be strong enough to reabsorb her. He said the immediate reaction of the British government "has been a complete lack of concern for her plight".[32]
UK politics
In a July 2024 interview with ITV News, Younger claimed that the Britain had become 'irrelevant' since Brexit.[33]
