Scoping the Future Counterintelligence Focus

A summary of counterintelligence threat chokepoints from the perspectives of the United States, Israel, the European Union, Nordic countries, and South Africa are presented. These chokepoints seem to stem from geopolitical competitiveness and manifest as espionage, subversion, terrorism, and covert action in any accessible domain possible. The discussion of threat focus areas has been chosen after consideration of the ontology of such threats, including new security challenges like hybrid threats, grey-zone influences, and some specific threats propagated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The discussion concludes with a brief view on counterintelligence threat enablers, accelerators, and effects. The aim is to provide a comparative view of existing counterintelligence threats, agendas, and threat responses to increase both awareness and resilience.