The roles and the different mandates of the various French intelligence services were fixed in 1945 and remained unchanged until the end of the Cold War. The fundamental reform of the French intelligence community demonstrates fairly clearly the way that France currently recognises the international and security issues at stake and the very important role it attaches to the fight against terrorism. The strengthening of Homeland intelligence under the impact of counter-terrorism is completely understandable since terrorism is both a strategic threat and a particular form of crime. The strong involvement of all the services in counter-terrorism, the large-scale use of technical collection methods and the new legal framework have had a significant impact. The pre-eminence given to the fight against terrorism and to homeland intelligence has the potential to divert the French intelligence services from certain other important missions in a highly volatile international context.