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. 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."
China and technology In December 2018, Younger raised concerns about
Huawei's role in the UK's new
5G mobile network. 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 likely 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.
Academic freedom In December 2018 Younger gave a rare speech at the
University of St Andrews, emphasising the need for fourth-generation espionage and fusing human skills with technical innovation. This was his second public speech in the four years since his appointment as chief of the MI6. 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. Hedges was later
pardoned by UAE President
Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan and reunited with his wife in the UK.
Counter terrorism 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. The decision was confirmed in the case of
Begum v Home Secretary. 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.
UK politics In a July 2024 interview with
ITV News, Younger said Britain had become 'irrelevant' since Brexit. ==Personal life==