Dutch AIVD ranked one of Europe's best intelligence services

The Dutch General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD) is the third best intelligence service in Europe, according to a ranking compiled by the French magazine L’Express based on 60 high-ranking officials in the Western espionage world. The United Kingdom and France’s intelligence services are in first and second place.

Huib Modderkolk, an investigative journalist at the Volkskrant considered a specialist in intelligence services, told NOS that the AIVD performs well because of its hackers and other technological expertise. “The AIVD collaborates with the military intelligence service MIVD in a special cyber team,” Modderkolk said. “In that team, people focus on infiltrating countries like Russia and China. That team is good at it.”

The AIVD is also very strategic with its international collaborations, Modderkolk said. “With major services, such as the Americans. And increasingly within Europe itself.” The Netherlands collaborates with Estonia, he said. That’s a small country, but a partner that focuses heavily on Russia.

"The Dutch services cannot compete with the scale and size of services like those of the U.S., but they have solved that by looking at what they are specifically really good at. That pays off,” Modderkolk said.

L’Express ranked the British intelligence service MI6 in first place, praising its ability to recruit high-level informants and infiltrate the ruling elites in Russia, China, Iran, and Turkey. The French DGSE is ranked second for its global reach and operational capacity, and its counterterrorism capabilities, which, according to the experts L’Express spoke to, are among the best in the world.