'It’s not the Cold War any more'

Wikileaks has published documents which it says shows that the US National Security Agency spied on French president Francois Hollande and his two immediate predecessors between 2006 and 2012.

The US was interested in France's leading of the Libya intervention and Europe’s handling of the economic crisis during Nicolas Sarkozy’s presidency, as well as Francois Hollande’s policy on Mali, said former CIA officer Michael Scheuer.

When there was a clear threat from a common enemy, Western allies were a "closed club" who refrained from spying on each-other, said the Professor of Security Studies at Georgetown University.

But now there was no common enemy – despite the West having “manufactured" a threat from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“It’s not the Cold War any more,” said Michael Scheuer. “It’s much more like the 19th Century when countries look out for themselves."

“We’re all [economic] competitors now, there is no need for unity.