Jun 18, 2025 07:30 IST First published on: Jun 18, 2025 at 07:30 ISTShareThere’s a new M in the game and like her fictional predecessor, played by Judi Dench in James Bond movies, she doesn’t need a tux, a martini, or a licence to kill. For the first time in its 116-year-old male-coded history, Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, or MI6, will be led by a woman, Blaise Metreweli. The 47-year-old will take over the reins of an organisation long mythologised through the lens of Ian Fleming — all Aston Martins, 007 swagger and espionage chic — later this year.The appointment, long overdue, marks a strategic shift — a recalibration of power and priorities in an age where spycraft has traded car chases for cyberattacks and cocktail parties for codebreaking, where espionage is less theatrical performance, more tactical subtlety. It signals a rewriting of the operational playbook to keep up with the times. In the last three decades, the battlefront has shifted from Cold War back alleys to cyberwar rooms, shadowy digital domains, misinformation mines, and global crises, demanding steel, subtlety and technical know-how. Currently MI6’s director of technology and innovation, Metreweli has been described as precise and unflappable — more John le Carré’s George Smiley than Fleming’s Bond. Her elevation to the top job comes as the culmination of a career forged in the crucible of high-stakes geopolitics.AdvertisementDespite their front-row seats and pop-culture glory, espionage has never been a boys-only game. From Bletchley Park code-breakers such as Joan Clarke to undercover World War II operatives such as Violette Szabo and Noor Inayat Khan, women have consistently worked in the shadows. With institutional recognition behind her, Metreweli can now rewrite the credits: In today’s intelligence wars, where influence networks stretch across continents, the most dangerous person in the room is no longer the one with a weapon. It may be the woman who can reimagine what strength and leadership might look like in the real-life spyverse.