SPECTRE

SPECTRE ("Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion") is a fictional organisation featured in the James Bond novels by Ian Fleming, as well as films and video games based in the same universe. Led by criminal mastermind Ernst Stavro Blofeld, SPECTRE first formally appeared in the novel Thunderball (1961) and in the film Dr. No (1962). The international organisation is not aligned with any nation or political ideology, enabling the later Bond books and Bond films to be regarded as somewhat apolitical. The presence of former Gestapo members in the organization can be considered as a sign of Fleming's warnings about Nazi fugitives after the Second World War, as first detailed in the novel Moonraker (1955). In the novels, SPECTRE begins as a small group of criminals, but in the films it is depicted as a vast international organisation with its own SPECTRE Island training base capable of replacing the Soviet SMERSH.

==Philosophy and goals== thumb|right|Blofeld's SPECTRE volcano base complete with spacecraft-swallowing Bird One spacecraft, helipad and attack helicopter, and command centre in the 1967 film You Only Live Twice (film)|You Only Live Twice. The world map in the background is common to emphasise the aim of [[world domination.]]