SPECTRE do not indulge in politics. They look to seize power, but they rarely exert their own, despite the considerable resources at their disposal. They choose not to wrestle control of the world using brute strength, but by using Machiavellian levels of deception, manipulation and foresight to achieve their goals. Their approach to global domination can be accurately surmised by the analogy of the three Siamese fighting fish Blofeld keeps in the film version of From Russia with Love. The supervillain points out that one of the fish stays out of the until the other two are finished; then, that remaining fish attacks the weakened victor and kills it easily. That's exactly SPECTRE's strategy. They instigate conflict between two powerful enemies usually world superpowers, as with their operations during the Cold War in From Russia With Love and Thunderball - hoping that they will exhaust themselves through conflict so that SPECTRE can seize power when they are vulnerable, unable to defend themselves. Obviously they never quite managed to pull that off, but it'll be interesting to see how that approach translates to the new Bond status quo. Right now the MI6 and Britain of the films is in a strong position. Perhaps SPECTRE's operations will be playing Quantum off against another group, distracting Bond from the real enemy.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
