Real-life Bond Villains found by Warwick professor

Villains once seen as unrealistic and fanciful in the world of Bond cinema are now thought to be more accurate depictions of the murky world of intelligence.

According to recent research by Professor Richard J. Aldrich, Professor of International Security at the Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Warwick, the threats faced by governments and, in particular, modern security services, at present are closer than previously thought to the enemies faced by James Bond in Ian Fleming’s novels.

The new findings are part of a research project, entitled “Landscapes of Secrecy: The Central Intelligence Agency and the contested record of US foreign policy, 1947-2001”, led by Professor Aldrich, made possible by a £477k grant from the UK’s Arts and Humanities Research Council. The project, the largest of its kind on the history of intelligence ever to be funded by a UK government research council, examines how the history of the CIA has been constructed since its foundation in 1947. It involves a team of five scholars at the universities of Nottingham and Warwick who are examining the creation of the public record of the CIA in realms such as history, memoirs, novels and film.

Commenting on the recent research, Professor Aldrich said: “Spying is often thought of as a Cold War phenomenon. Ten years ago, in the film “GoldenEye”, the stern figure of “M” told 007 that he was nothing more than a historical relic. Yet even before Ian Fleming’s extraordinary hero first appeared on the screen, the world of James Bond was in fact looking forward to the twenty-first century – and not backwards.

“Remarkably, the Bond villains, including Dr No, Goldfinger and Blofeld, have always been post-Cold War figures. Bond’s enemies are in fact very close to the real enemies of the last two decades – part master criminal – part arms smuggler – part terrorist – part warlord. They are always the miscreants of globalization, they endanger not only the security of single countries, but the safety of the whole world. Like our modern enemies, they thrive on the gaps between sovereign states and secrecy.

“…The role of film and fiction in shaping the public understanding of espionage is serious stuff. Curiously, although government secret services hide in shadows, the public somehow feels it knows more about them than the more mundane work-a-day civil service. This is because “007”, together with television series such as “Spooks”, “24” and the “X-Files” have allowed the viewer to spend literally hours inside their highly-secure buildings.

“Programme-makers often go to obsessive lengths to get things right, albeit in reality “M”s office on the south bank of the Thames is a little less glitzy than the one portrayed in “Quantum of Solace”. Secret services have come to recognise that film and fiction play an important part in the public understanding of intelligence work and the CIA has gone so far as to appoint a Hollywood liaison officer to assist film-makers whose wish to portray the agency. “

The latest instalment of Bond, “The Quantum of Solace”, however, tackles issues more relevant to today’s world and may not actually be as far from the truth as we thought. We are faced with issues that affect us all profoundly; climate change, environmental hazards and global uncertainty, and it is these issues that are the focus of the new Bond, replacing the never-ending, old concern with counter-terrorism.

It seems that we may, as Professor Aldrich says, “…need James Bond more than ever.”