The agencies were assessed in three main areas: recruiting “moles” and penetrating centers of power; assassination and sabotage operations, including operations such as Israel’s pager attack and Ukraine’s Operation Spiderweb; and intelligence collection, cyber operations and access to encrypted communications.

“I had not imagined that relations between the agencies were much more intense than the official relations between the countries,” a senior Swiss diplomatic figure told the magazine. “An effective intelligence agency gives a country power no less significant than nuclear weapons.”