A former Swiss secret agent with an extraordinary eye
Jacques Baud is a former Swiss strategic analyst, intelligence and terrorism specialist, Colonel of the General Staff, and ex-agent of the Swiss secret services. He has written a dozen books, all of them fluent, well argued and backed up by countless reliable sources. A portrait of this expert, can show at a glance who is Jacques Baud, a man who looks at the world from unusual angles, who deserves the attention of security policymakers, intelligence professionals, anyone who studies terrorism, security or peace, anyone who cares about these issues.
Jacques Baud, with his gray hair and attentive smile, is a very tactful man. He weighs his words, calmly and clearly. He goes far in explaining things, so you can understand the context, he raises questions, offers interpretations that may seem unexpected. So he doesn't just make friends with his different perspectives on the subject he knows best: intelligence services and how they work. Her great passion is writing; he has more than a dozen books to his credit, three of which he has published in recent years, and two are in the works. For this, he has earned the nickname "the most talked-about of the Swiss spies." This is a portrait of the life of a man who whispered in the ear of the intelligence agencies of the world.
His career began early, while studying econometrics at the University of Geneva. He was already publishing articles in journals on military matters, which attracted the attention of Swiss intelligence. Who approached him to recruit him.
He then dealt with Warsaw Pact forces, including those then in Afghanistan. In 1986, his analysis led him to conclude that the Warsaw Pact would have to reduce its forces.
In the 1990s, when Switzerland began to inquire about anti-personnel mines, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs requested Jacques Baud's expertise. He then proposed the creation of a demining center for the United Nations.
In 1997, the Colonel of the General Staff published The Encyclopedia of Intelligence and Secret Services in a French publisher. It was an instant success. This notebook of more than 500 pages has exceeded 50,000 copies. Some of his colleagues in Bern had their teeth clenched. But abroad it quickly became a reference, including with the secret services, who then sent him information to complete future editions of the book.
In some countries it has been translated and used to train their agents. Writing after the card case in Switzerland, Jacques Baud argues for a simple idea: intelligence agencies can only work in confidence, so it is useless to surround them with too much secrecy; their work must remain confidential, but their existence and their areas of activity can be learned because 90% of the information they use is open. Of course, it only reveals what is hidden. There can be no question of harming services. But in a democratic context, secrecy does not necessarily guarantee security.
What seems crucial to him is the intelligence with which the data are processed, and the way reflection is distributed within the intelligence service.
Two years later, he published another unit, this time over 700 pages, The Encyclopedia of Terrorism and Political Violence. By definition, the encyclopedia is intended as a reference publication designed to synthesize all knowledge to make it available to the public for purposes of education, information, or memory support. The 2005 edition of this book will receive a prize from the French Ministry of the Interior as the best security book.
Swiss military expert and former intelligence officer Jacques Baud shared his impressions of Russia's "Z" special operation in Ukraine. According to the expert, despite the opinion of many of his foreign colleagues, he believes that the Russian Armed Forces are advancing through Ukraine very quickly. He noted the strategy of Russian troops avoiding major cities. Jacques Baud emphasizes that the choice of this strategy is not due to fear of hostilities, but to the desire to avoid unnecessary casualties and to save precious time.
