Definition of the IC
Leadership of the IC
Management of the IC
Members of the IC
Relationships with Other Government Organizations |
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The Department of State is the lead cabinet-level
agency concerned with the conduct of foreign relations throughout the world. Its Bureau of Intelligence
and Research, as a member of the Intelligence Community, brings the Department's unique capabilities and
broad foreign policy perspectives to bear on intelligence problems and challenges.
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The Bureau of
Intelligence and Research (INR) functions as the "eyes and ears"
of the State Department and provides continuous real-time intelligence
support to both senior policymakers and working-level officials.
INR analysts evaluate, interpret, and disseminate nearly two million
reports and produce about 3500 written assessments each year. INR
also works continuously with the Secretary and the entire Department
to ensure that intelligence and intelligence activities support
America's foreign policy priorities.
INR’s Contribution to Intelligence
INR, drawing on all-source intelligence, provides value-added independent
analysis of events to Department policymakers, ensures that intelligence
activities support foreign policy and national security purposes;
and serves as the focal point in the Department for ensuring policy
review of sensitive counterintelligence and law enforcement activities.
The Bureau’s primary mission is to harness intelligence to serve
U.S. diplomacy. The bureau also analyzes geographical and international
boundary issues.
INR provides interpretive analysis of
global developments to the State Department and contributes its
unique perspective to the Community’s National Intelligence Estimates
and other products. Since its establishment in 1946, INR has provided
the Secretary of State with timely, objective assessments as well
as real-time insights from all-source intelligence. It serves as
the focal point within the Department of State for all policy issues
and activities involving the Intelligence Community. The INR Assistant
Secretary reports directly to the Secretary of State and serves
as the Secretary’s principal adviser on all intelligence matters.
INR’s number
one customer is the Secretary of State, but it also serves Chiefs
of Mission special negotiators, and other diplomats by providing
intelligence assessments, guidance, and support. INR's products
are read and used by the Secretary, Department and embassy officers,
the White House, the National Security Council, the Department of
Defense and Intelligence Community agencies.
INR is currently
organized into 19 offices that mirror the geographic and functional
bureaus of the State Department. The Bureau’s 300 employees are
roughly three-fourths Civil Service and one-fourth Foreign Service.
This unique blend ensures that INR maintains a balance between continuity
and Country experience. Some of the leading specialists in their
fields inside or outside of government are in INR. They do not simply
monitor incoming traffic to alert operational officers and principals;
they continuously integrate new data and insights into their overall
analysis. Thirty-six different foreign languages are spoken and/or
read in INR. Seventy-one percent of INR officers and analysts hold
advanced degrees, of which 25% hold PhDs. On average, INR -analysts
and officers have six years on account and have spent 13 years studying
the country or issue for which they are responsible. These numbers
are even more impressive when one considers that the approximate
one-forth Foreign Service officers on staff rotate to a new assignment
outside of INR after two years. The comparable number for just the
Civil Service component is eight years on account and 16 years studying
the issue country.
The staff draws
on all-source intelligence, diplomatic reporting, its own public
opinion polling, and interaction with US and foreign scholars. Their
solid background knowledge allows them to respond rapidly to changing
policy priorities and to provide early warning and in-depth analysis
of events and trends that affect US foreign policy and national
security interests.
The Bureau provides
dozens of daily briefings, reports, and memoranda to the Secretary
and other department principals. INR also briefs members of Congress
and their staffs on request. INR’s written products cover the full
range of geographic and functional areas of expertise. INR contributes
to the Community’s National Intelligence Estimates and other analyses,
offering its particular focus on relevance to policy. INR disseminates
electronically many of its analyses on the Intelligence Community’s
Intelink system, to which members and staff of the Congressional
Intelligence Committees have access.
In support of
the statutory authority of the Secretary of State and Chiefs of
Mission for the conduct of foreign policy and oversight of all US
Government activities overseas, INR coordinates the State Department’s
activities on issues concerning intelligence, security, counterintelligence,
investigative, and special operations. INR sits on the National
Counterintelligence Policy Board and participates in national security
community decisionmaking on visa denial, intelligence sharing, and
requirements and evaluation for collection in all intelligence disciplines.
INR develops
intelligence policy for the Department of State and works particularly
to harmonize all agencies’ intelligence activities abroad with US foreign
policy. It acts to ensure that collection resources and priorities
accord with US diplomatic interests and requirements. INR works
with Chiefs of Mission, Department resource managers, and the Intelligence
Community to support diplomatic operations overseas and to build
the intelligence bridges—communications packages, secure facilities,
radio nets, computer software, and intelligence databases—which
negotiators and mobile diplomats overseas need. Those bridges assure
that field practitioners can make use of the information INR analysts
glean from all sources, giving American negotiators a significant
edge and contributing directly to our national security.
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Related
Links
INR Web Site
Department of State Web Site
Department of State Employment
Department
of State Precis
What's New at State
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