His replacement was one of three shortlisted, one of whom, intriguingly, was an “external” candidate. Sawers is best known for his time between 1999 and 2001 as Tony Blair’s foreign policy adviser, during which he was deeply involved in the management of the Kosovo crisis and the Northern Ireland peace process. He was also political director of the FCO for four years, experience which will doubtless serve him well as he negotiates the minefield of running a 21st century intelligence service at a time of public sector cuts, demands for ever greater transparency and an Islamist threat that is both elusively supranational and deeply domesticated.