The National Intelligence Strategyof the United States of America
IC Vision

A Nation made more secure by a fully
integrated, agile, resilient, and innovative
Intelligence Community that exemplifies
America’s values.

IC Mission

Provide timely, insightful, objective, andrelevant intelligence and support toinform national security decisions andto protect our Nation and its interests.

This National Intelligence Strategy (NIS) provides the Intelligence
Community (IC) with strategic direction from the Director of
National Intelligence (DNI) for the next four years. It supports
the national security priorities outlined in the National Security
Strategy as well as other national strategies. In executing the
NIS, all IC activities must be responsive to national security
priorities and must comply with the Constitution, applicable laws
and statutes, and Congressional oversight requirements.

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All our activities will be conducted consistent with our guiding
principles: We advance our national security, economic strength,
and technological superiority by delivering distinctive, timely
insights with clarity, objectivity, and independence; we achieve
unparalleled access to protected information and exquisite
understanding of our adversaries’ intentions and capabilities; wemaintain global awareness for strategic warning; and we leveragewhat others do well, adding unique value for the Nation.

STAT

ES O F A

MERFrom the Directorof National Intelligence
As the Director of National Intelligence, I am fortunate to lead an Intelligence Community (IC) composedof the best and brightest professionals who have committed their careers and their lives to protecting
our national security. The IC is a 24/7/365 organization, scanning the globe and delivering the mostdistinctive, timely insights with clarity, objectivity, and independence to advance our national security,
economic strength, and technological superiority.
This, the fourth iteration of the National Intelligence Strategy (NIS), is our guide for the next four years
to better serve the needs of our customers, to help them make informed decisions on national security
issues, and to ultimately keep our Nation safe. The NIS is designed to advance our mission and alignour objectives with national strategies, and it provides an opportunity to communicate national priority
objectives to our workforce, partners, oversight, customers, and also to our fellow citizens.
We face significant changes in the domestic and global environment; we must be ready to meet 21st
century challenges and to recognize emerging threats and opportunities. To navigate today’s turbulent
and complex strategic environment, we must do things differently. This means we must:• Increase integration and coordination of our intelligence activities to achieve best effect and value
in executing our mission,• Bolster innovation to constantly improve our work,• Better leverage strong, unique, and valuable partnerships to support and enable national security
outcomes, and• Increase transparency while protecting national security information to enhance accountability andpublic trust.
This National Intelligence Strategy increases emphasis in these areas. It better integrates counterintelligenceand security, better focuses the IC on addressing cyber threats, and sets clear direction on privacy, civil
liberties and transparency.
We have crucial work before us. Our customers depend on us to help them to make wise national security
decisions, and Americans count on us to help protect the Nation, all while protecting their privacy and civil
liberties. We must provide the best intelligence possible to support these objectives; doing so is a collective
responsibility of all of our dedicated IC professionals and, together with our partners, we can realize our vision.
Our ongoing goal is to continue to be the very best intelligence community in the world. Thank you for yourservice and for bringing your talent and commitment to the work of keeping our Nation safe each and everyday. Thank you for your dedication to our mission and to the security of our fellow citizens as we take thisjourney together.

2019 NIS

Daniel R. Coats
Director of National Intelligence3

Strategic
Environment
The strategic environment is changing rapidly, and the United States faces an increasingly
complex and uncertain world in which threats are becoming ever more diverse andinterconnected. While the IC remains focused on confronting a number of conventional
challenges to U.S. national security posed by our adversaries, advances in technology are
driving evolutionary and revolutionary change across multiple fronts. The IC will have to
become more agile, innovative, and resilient to deal effectively with these threats and theever more volatile world that shapes them. The increasingly complex, interconnected, andtransnational nature of these threats also underscores the importance of continuing andadvancing IC outreach and cooperation with international partners and allies.
Traditional adversaries will continue attempts
to gain and assert influence, taking advantage
of changing conditions in the international
environment—including the weakening of the
post-WWII international order and dominance ofWestern democratic ideals, increasingly isolationist
tendencies in the West, and shifts in the global
economy. These adversaries pose challenges within
traditional, non-traditional, hybrid, and asymmetricmilitary, economic, and political spheres. Russianefforts to increase its influence and authority arelikely to continue and may conflict with U.S. goals
and priorities in multiple regions. Chinese militarymodernization and continued pursuit of economic
and territorial predominance in the Pacific region andbeyond remain a concern, though opportunities exist
to work with Beijing on issues of mutual concern,such as North Korean aggression and continued
pursuit of nuclear and ballistic missile technology.
Despite its 2015 commitment to a peaceful nuclear
program, Iran’s pursuit of more advanced missile
and military capabilities and continued support for
terrorist groups, militants, and other U.S. opponents
will continue to threaten U.S. interests. Multiple
adversaries continue to pursue capabilities to inflict
potentially catastrophic damage to U.S. interests
through the acquisition and use of weapons ofmass destruction (WMD), which includes biological,
chemical, and nuclear weapons.
4

In addition to these familiar threats, our adversaries
are increasingly leveraging rapid advances intechnology to pose new and evolving threats—
particularly in the realm of space, cyberspace,computing, and other emerging, disruptive
technologies. Technological advances will enable
a wider range of actors to acquire sophisticatedcapabilities that were previously available only towell-resourced states.
No longer a solely U.S. domain, the democratizationof space poses significant challenges for the UnitedStates and the IC. Adversaries are increasing theirpresence in this domain with plans to reach orexceed parity in some areas. For example, Russia
and China will continue to pursue a full rangeof anti-satellite weapons as a means to reduce
U.S. military effectiveness and overall security.
Increasing commercialization of space now provides
capabilities that were once limited to global powers
to anyone that can afford to buy them. Many aspectsof modern society—to include our ability to conduct
military operations—rely on our access to andequipment in space.

Cyber threats are already challenging publicconfidence in our global institutions, governance, andnorms, while imposing numerous economic costs
domestically and globally. As the cyber capabilities ofour adversaries grow, they will pose increasing threats
to U.S. security, including critical infrastructure, publichealth and safety, economic prosperity, and stability.

Emerging technologies, such as artificial
intelligence, automation, and high performancecomputing are advancing computational capabilities
that can be economically beneficial, however theseadvances also enable new and improved military andintelligence capabilities for our adversaries. Advancesin nano- and bio-technologies have the potential
to cure diseases and modify human performance,
but without common ethical standards and sharedinterests to govern these developments, they havethe potential to pose significant threats to U.S.
interests and security. In addition, the development
and spread of such technologies remain uneven,increasing the potential to drastically widen the divide
between so-called “haves” and “have-nots.”
Advances in communications and thedemocratization of other technologies have also
generated an ability to create and share vast andexponentially growing amounts of information farther
and faster than ever before. This abundance ofdata provides significant opportunities for theIC, including new avenues for collection and thepotential for greater insight, but it also challenges
the IC’s ability to collect, process, evaluate, andanalyze such enormous volumes of data quickly
enough to provide relevant and useful insight toits customers.

The ability of individuals and groups to have alarger impact than ever before—politically, militarily,
economically, and ideologically—is undermining
traditional institutions. This empowerment ofgroups and individuals is increasing the influenceof ethnic, religious, and other sources of identity,changing the nature of conflict, and challenging
the ability of traditional governments to satisfy theincreasing demands of their populations, increasing

Increasing migration and urbanization of
populations are also further straining the capacitiesof governments around the world and are likely toresult in further fracturing of societies, potentiallycreating breeding grounds for radicalization. Pressure
points include growing influxes of migrants, refugees,
and internally displaced persons fleeing conflictzones; areas of intense economic or other resource
scarcity; and areas threatened by climate changes,
infectious disease outbreaks, or transnational
criminal organizations.
All of these issues will continue to drive globalchange on an unprecedented scale and the IC must
be able to warn of their strategic effects and adapt tomeet the changing mission needs in this increasingly
unstable environment. There will likely be demand
for greater intelligence support to domestic security,
driven in part by concerns over the threat of terrorism,
the threat posed by transnational illicit drug andhuman trafficking networks, and the threat to U.S.
critical infrastructure. Intelligence support to counter
these threats must be conducted in accordance with
IC authorities, with appropriate levels of transparency
to the public, and with adequate protection for civil
liberties and privacy.

2019 NIS - STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENT

These advances in communications and thedemocratization of other technologies haveempowered non-state actors and will continue toexponentially expand the potential to influencepeople and events, both domestically and globally.

the potential for greater instability. Some violent
extremist groups will continue to take advantageof these sources and drivers of instability to holdterritory, further insurgencies, plan external attacks,
and inspire followers to launch attacks wherever they
are around the world.

5

Mission
Objectives
The seven mission objectives broadly describe the activities
and outcomes necessary for the IC to deliver timely,
insightful, objective, and relevant intelligence and support
to its customers. Mission objectives address a broad rangeof regional and functional topics facing the IC and theirprioritization is communicated to the IC through the
National Intelligence Priorities Framework.
The first three mission objectives address foundational missionsof the IC which transcend individual threats, topics, or geographic
regions. This is different from foundational military intelligence,
which is intelligence on foreign military capabilities. As such,foundational mission objectives collectively represent thebroadest and most fundamental of the IC’s intelligence missions.

123Strategic Intelligenceaddresses issues of enduring national security interest.

Anticipatory Intelligenceaddresses new and emerging trends, changing conditions,and underappreciated developments.

Current Operations Intelligencesupports planned and ongoing operations.

The next four mission objectives address specific, topical missionsof the IC. The topical mission objectives are supported by thethree foundational mission objectives and may contain elementsof these. Other specific regional and functional issues, suchas conflict areas and transnational criminal organizations, are
implicitly covered by the mission objectives.

addresses state and non-state actors engaged in malicious cyber activities.

Counterterrorism
addresses state and non-state actors engaged in terrorism
and related activities.

Counterproliferation
addresses state and non-state actors engaged in the proliferationof weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery.

Counterintelligence and Security
addresses threats from foreign intelligence entities and insiders.

all intelligence, regardless ofthe source from which derived
and including information
gathered within or outside theUnited States, that pertains,as determined consistent withany guidance issued by the
President, or that is determined
for the purpose of access to
information by the Director
to pertain to more than one
United States Government
agency; and that involves
threats to the United States, its
people, property, or interests;
the development, proliferation,or use of weapons of mass
destruction; or any other matterbearing on United Statesnational or homeland security.
(Executive Order 12333)

2019 NIS - MISSION OBJECTIVES

4
5
6
7

Cyber Threat Intelligence

National Intelligence andIntelligence Related to
National Security means

7StrategicIntelligence
Identify and assess the capabilities, activities, andintentions of states and non-state entities to develop a
deep understanding of the strategic environment, warn offuture developments on issues of enduring interest, andsupport U.S. national security policy and strategy decisions.
Strategic intelligence is the process and product of developing
the context, knowledge, and understanding of the strategic
environment required to support U.S. national security policy andplanning decisions. This work includes identifying and assessing
the capabilities, activities, and intentions of states and non-state
entities to identify risks to and opportunities for U.S. national
security interests. Strategic intelligence involves assimilating avariety of information—including knowledge of political, diplomatic,
economic, and security developments—to create a deep
understanding of issues of enduring importance to the UnitedStates. Strategic intelligence also provides in-depth assessments oftrends and developments to recognize and warn of changes related
to these issues that will affect the future strategic environment.
The foundation for strategic intelligence requires developing andmaintaining a deep understanding of the strategic environment, toinclude transnational issues such as terrorism and transnationalorganized crime, and the capabilities, activities, and intentionsof states and non-state entities necessary to support U.S.
national security policy and planning decisions. The IC must
master strategic intelligence issues through research, knowledge
development, collaboration with experts within the IC, andoutreach to experts in academia and industry, as well as theuse of advanced analytics and tradecraft to provide in-depth
assessments and the strategic context for a wide variety of policy
and strategy communities.

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TO MEET TH IS OBJ EC T I V E,
TH E IC WILL:• Develop and maintain capabilities
to acquire and evaluate data toobtain a deep understanding of
the global political, diplomatic,
military, economic, security, andinformational environment.
• Build and maintain expertise andknowledge of issues of enduring
strategic importance to theUnited States, and assess trends
and developments related tothese issues to identify changes
that would affect U.S. national
security interests and to identify
strategic risks and opportunities.
• Provide in-depth assessments,
context, and expertise about thestrategic environment, including
the capabilities, activities, andintentions of key state andnon-state entities, to inform U.S.
national security policy andstrategy development.

Anticipatory
Intelligence
Identify and assess new, emerging trends, changing
conditions, and underappreciated developments tochallenge long-standing assumptions, encourage newperspectives, identify new opportunities, and provide
warning of threats to U.S. interests.
Anticipatory intelligence involves collecting and analyzing
information to identify new, emerging trends, changing conditions,and undervalued developments, which challenge long-standing
assumptions and encourage new perspectives, as well as
identify new opportunities and warn of threats to U.S. interests.
Anticipatory intelligence usually leverages a cross-disciplinary
approach, and often utilizes specialized tradecraft to identify
emerging issues from “weak signals,” cope with high degrees of
uncertainty, and consider alternative futures.
Anticipatory intelligence looks to the future as foresight (identifying
emerging issues), forecasting (developing potential scenarios),
or warning. Anticipatory intelligence explores the potential for
cascading events or activities to reinforce, amplify, or accelerate
conflict. It may uncover previously unconnected groups or regions
and include indicators or benchmarks to identify key developments
as trends change over time. Anticipatory intelligence assesses risk,
intelligence gaps, and uncertainties by evaluating the probabilityof occurrence and potential effects of a given development on U.S.
national security.

TO MEET TH IS OBJ EC T I V E,
TH E IC WILL:• Develop quantitative methods
and data analysis techniques andtradecraft to improve the IC’s ability
to identify, analyze, and forecastchanging conditions and emerging
trends across multiple portfolios.
• Increase common understandingof the scope, definition, tradecraft,
and methods of anticipatory
intelligence across the community
to develop workforce proficiency inthese skills.
• Identify and work to remove thecultural, technological, humancapital, and other barriers toincorporate anticipatory intelligence
into the IC’s routine analytic efforts.
• Produce and provide intelligence
information and products thathighlight emerging trends,
changing conditions, andopportunities or threats in areasof limited customer focus tomaximize decision advantage.
• Develop integrated capabilities
to create alerts within the IC toprovide timely and relevant warning
to our customers, as well as toapprise them of opportunities.

2019 NIS - MISSION OBJECTIVES

The complexity, scale, and pace of changes developing aroundthe world test the IC’s ability to deliver insightful and actionable
intelligence with optimal fidelity, scope, and speed required tomitigate threats and exploit opportunities. The IC will expand its
use of quantitative analytic methods while reinforcing qualitative
methods, especially those that encourage new perspectives andchallenge long-standing assumptions. With evolving intelligencerequirements, anticipatory intelligence is critical for efficient IC
resource allocation. The IC will improve its ability to foresee,
forecast, and alert regarding potential issues of concern andprovide the best possible opportunities for action to our national
security customers.

29Current Operations
Intelligence
Provide timely intelligence support to enable planned andongoing operations.
Current operations intelligence is the collection, analysis,
operations, and planning support that IC elements conduct toenable successful planned and ongoing operations. Current
operations intelligence includes the intelligence necessary
to support the time-sensitive needs of military, diplomatic,
homeland security, and policy customers in times of conflict orcrisis, but also provides opportunities to shape future operations
and desired operational outcomes.
The IC will adapt to evolving operational requirements, maintainthe robust support customers expect, and further enhancecapabilities. Faced with a wide spectrum of operations in supportof military, diplomatic, and homeland security activities, to include
addressing transnational organized crime, the IC will prioritize its
efforts and mitigate risk, operate in denied areas, balance forward
presence with robust reach-back, and provide operational resiliency
to more fully integrate intelligence with operations.

103

TO MEET TH IS OBJ EC T I V E,
TH E IC WILL:• Provide timely intelligencesupport to enable plannedand ongoing operations.
• Develop and maintain a robust,
IC-wide intelligence architecturethat delivers actionable, timely,
and agile intelligence support toachieve and maintain operational
decision advantage.
• Expand and enhance collaboration
with domestic and global partners
to maximize the effectiveness andreach of intelligence capabilities insupport of operations.
• Conduct sensitive intelligence
operations to support effective
national security action.

Cyber ThreatIntelligence
Detect and understand cyber threats from state andnon-state actors engaged in malicious cyber activity to
inform and enable national security decisionmaking,cybersecurity, and the full range of response activities.
Cyber threat intelligence is the collection, processing,analysis, and dissemination of information from all sourcesof intelligence on foreign actors’ cyber programs, intentions,capabilities, research and development, tactics, targets,
operational activities and indicators, and their impact or potential
effects on U.S. national security interests. Cyber threat intelligencealso includes information on cyber threat actor information
systems, infrastructure, and data; and network characterization, orinsight into the components, structures, use, and vulnerabilities offoreign cyber program information systems.
Despite growing awareness of cyber threats and improving cyberdefenses, nearly all information, communication networks, andsystems will be at risk for years to come. Our adversaries are
becoming more adept at using cyberspace capabilities to threaten
our interests and advance their own strategic and economic
objectives. Cyber threats will pose an increasing risk to publichealth, safety, and prosperity as information technologies areintegrated into critical infrastructure, vital national networks, andconsumer devices. The IC must continue to grow its intelligencecapabilities to meet these evolving cyber threats as a part of acomprehensive cyber posture positioning the Nation for strategic
and tactical response.

4

TO MEET TH IS OBJ EC T I V E,
TH E IC WILL:• Increase our awareness andunderstanding of adversaries’ useof cyber operations—including
leadership plans, intentions,capabilities, and operations—to
inform decisions and enable action.
• Expand tailored production andappropriate dissemination andrelease of actionable cyber threat
intelligence to support the defenseof vital information networks andcritical infrastructure.
• Expand our ability to enablediplomatic, information, military,economic, financial, intelligence,and law enforcement plansand operations to deter andcounter malicious cyber actors
and activities.

2019 NIS - MISSION OBJECTIVES
11

Counterterrorism
Identify, understand, monitor, and disrupt state andnon-state actors engaged in terrorism and related
activities to defeat threats to the United States, ourpeople, interests, and partners.
The dynamic nature of the terrorist threat facing the UnitedStates requires continued emphasis on intelligence collection
and analysis. The IC is therefore an integral part of the national
whole-of-government effort to protect our country from terrorist
attacks. The IC works across agencies and with domestic andforeign partners to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat terrorists
who threaten our homeland, our people, our interests, and ourpartners overseas.
The IC identifies and helps to eliminate terrorist safe havens anddegrade the illicit financial networks that fund terrorist activities.
The IC supports broader U.S. Government efforts to counterthe spread of violent extremist ideology that drives terrorist
actions and to leverage domestic and foreign partnerships andcapabilities to strengthen our own capacity and resilience. The
enduring and evolving nature of the threat, to include the threatof WMD terrorism, means that the IC must continue to pursue
innovative approaches to collection and analysis to ensure
counterterrorism (CT) efforts remain effective, efficient, andfully integrated.

12

5

TO MEET TH IS OBJ EC T I V E,
TH E IC WILL:• Collect and analyze intelligence toenable the disruption of terrorist
attacks and attack planning, as
well as terrorism-related activities.
• Identify and warn of emerging
and changing threats, trends,
and violent extremist ideologies
to develop opportunities tocounter them.
• Broaden and deepen strategic
knowledge of the global terrorism
landscape to provide context
to customers.

Counterproliferation
Detect, characterize, and disrupt activities of state andnon-state actors engaged in the proliferation of weaponsof mass destruction (WMD) and their means of delivery
to defeat WMD threats to the United States, our people,
interests, and partners.
Proliferation is the development and spread of WMD, related
technologies, materials, or expertise, and their means of delivery,
including both indigenous development and transfers.

Counterproliferation discourages interest in WMD, denies or
disrupts acquisition, degrades programs and capabilities, deters
use, and mitigates consequences.

The IC must continue to implement a whole-of-government
approach to advancing the enduring U.S. counterproliferation
policy goals of discouraging interest in WMD, denying or
disrupting acquisition, degrading programs and capabilities,
including financial networks that fund proliferation activities,
deterring use, and mitigating consequences. This issue isincreasingly important as regional security dynamics evolve andas states, terrorists, and proliferators take advantage of rapidly
emerging technological advances.

TO MEET TH IS OBJ EC T I V E,
TH E IC WILL:• Strengthen U.S. Government
efforts to secure global WMD
stockpiles, disrupt adversaries’
programs, and prevent the transfer
of WMD, related technologies,
materials, or expertise.
• Bolster U.S. ability to anticipate
and manage WMD crises,
including potential disclosure,loss, theft, or use of WMD-relatedmaterials or weapons.
• Develop, maintain, and enhance
intelligence capabilities to advanceunderstanding of foreign WMD
programs, related technologies,
materials, or expertise toeffectively inform interagency
counterproliferation strategicplanning and operations.

2019 NIS - MISSION OBJECTIVES

Many adversaries continue to pursue capabilities to inflictcatastrophic damage to U.S. interests through the acquisition
and use of WMD. Their possession of these capabilities canhave major impacts on U.S. national security, overseas interests,
allies, and the global order. The intelligence challenges tocountering the proliferation of WMD and advanced conventional
weapons are increasing as actors become more sophisticated,
WMD-related information becomes broadly available, proliferation
mechanisms increase, and as political instability erodes the
security of WMD stockpiles.

613

Counterintelligence andSecurity
Detect, understand, deter, disrupt, and defend against
threats from foreign intelligence entities and insiders
to protect U.S. national and economic security.
Foreign Intelligence Entity (FIE) is any known or suspected
foreign state or non-state organization or person that conducts
intelligence activities to acquire U.S. information, block or impair
U.S. intelligence collection, influence U.S. policy, or disrupt U.S.
systems and programs. The term includes foreign intelligence andsecurity services and international terrorists.

Insider Threat is the threat that an insider—any person withauthorized access to any U.S. Government resource, to include
personnel, facilities, information, equipment, networks, or
systems—will use his/her authorized access, wittingly or unwittingly,
to do harm to the security of the United States. This threat can
include damage to the United States through espionage, terrorism,
unauthorized disclosure of national security information, or throughthe loss or degradation of departmental resources or capabilities.
The United States faces an increasingly complex and diverse
set of counterintelligence (CI) and security challenges. Rapid
technological advances are allowing a broad range of FIEs to field
increasingly sophisticated capabilities and aggressively target
the government, private sector partners, and academia. FIEs areproactive and use creative approaches—including the use of cybertools, malicious insiders, espionage, and supply chain exploitation—to advance their interests and gain advantage over the UnitedStates. These activities intensify traditional FIE threats, place U.S.
critical infrastructure at risk, erode U.S. competitive advantage,
and weaken our global influence. To mitigate these threats, the IC
must drive innovative CI and security solutions, further integrate CI
and security disciplines into IC business practices, and effectively
resource such efforts. While the authorities that govern CI and
security and the programs they drive are distinct, their respective
actions must be synchronized, coordinated, and integrated.

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7

TO MEET TH IS OBJ EC T I V E,
TH E IC WILL:• Drive integrated IC activities
to anticipate and advance ourunderstanding of evolving FIE
threats and security vulnerabilities.
• Develop and implement new
capabilities to detect, deter,and disrupt FIE activities andinsider threats.
• Advance CI and security
efforts to protect our people,
technologies, information,
infrastructure, and facilities
from FIEs and insider threats.
• Strengthen the exchange ofFIE threat and security
vulnerability information among
key partners and stakeholders topromote coordinated approaches
to mitigation.

Enterprise
Objectives
The seven enterprise objectives provide the foundation for
integrated, effective, and efficient management of mission
capabilities and business functions.

The first two enterprise objectives focus on general mission andbusiness practices of the IC.

1
2

Integrated Mission Management
addresses IC mission capabilities, activities, and resources to achieve
unity of effort.

Integrated Business Management
addresses IC business functions and practices to enable mission success.

The next five enterprise objectives focus on integration of IC
efforts in specific areas for the successful completion of themission objectives.

3
4

People5
6
7

Information Sharing and Safeguarding

seeks to forge and retain a diverse, inclusive, and expert workforce.

Innovation
addresses the improvement of mission and business processes throughnew technologies, innovative thought, and advancements in tradecraft.

improves collaboration and integration while protecting information.

Partnerships
Privacy, Civil Liberties, and Transparency
seeks to protect U.S. values and enhance public trust.

2019 NIS - ENTERPRISE OBJECTIVES

seeks to enhance intelligence through partnerships.

17Integrated Mission
Management
Prioritize, coordinate, align, and de-conflict IC mission
capabilities, activities, and resources to achieve unityof effort and the best effect in executing the IC’s
mission objectives.
Effective mission execution requires flexible, responsive, andresilient efforts to appropriately share knowledge, information, andcapabilities across organizational boundaries; mission-focused
centers have proven effective in achieving these ends. IC leaders
will integrate, collaborate, and exchange feedback across priority
areas to meet customer needs.
The IC must strike a balance between unity of effort andspecialization, using the best of each to meet mission objectives.
Integrated mission management drives collaboration, creates
efficiencies, and minimizes redundancies, allowing the IC toeffectively use available resources.

1

TO MEET TH IS OBJ EC T I V E,
TH E IC WILL:• Provide leadership andcommunity management tofoster collaboration, streamline
processes, and effectively
manage resources to achieve
IC mission objectives.
• Conduct integrated planning,
analysis, collection, production,and dissemination to synchronize
intelligence activities.
• Leverage IC capabilities andmulti-disciplinary expertiseto collaboratively anticipate
intelligence problems, implement
solutions, and enable innovation.
• Strengthen and integrate IC
governance bodies to increasetransparency, prioritize andoptimize resources, balance
tradeoffs, and manage risk.
• Drive integrated investment
decisions and the delivery ofmulti-disciplinary, integrated
capabilities to assure
mission success.

18

Integrated Business
Management

2

Provide and optimize IC business functions and practices
to enable mission success.

TO MEET TH IS OBJ EC T I V E,
TH E IC WILL:

IC business functions and practices enable the community• Advance a dynamic approachto continuous evaluation andcommon security practices andstandards to strengthen the
security of the IC infrastructure.

to perform its missions, activities, and operations. These
functions and practices include the coordinated development,alignment, de-confliction, execution, and monitoring of strategies,
policies, plans, and procedures needed to manage and secure
the IC and its people, information technology, and physicalinfrastructure.

Effectively managing business functions and practices acrossthe IC contributes to communication and collaboration,
supports the efficient use of resources, enables resilience, andstrengthens integration. Common standards, shared services,and best practices within IC authorities can increase efficiency,
effectiveness, and accountability; successfully manage andmitigate risk; and improve business processes through datadriven reviews and performance measurements. The IC will
promote and identify best business practices and functions
to optimize solutions and increase collaboration to create aculture of continuous learning, innovation, and partnerships
across the community. The IC must also develop flexible,risk-managed acquisition processes that deliver innovative
capabilities, data, and expertise at mission pace.

• Pursue common strategies andbest practices for acquisitionand procurement across the IC
to enhance the cost-effectiveness,
efficiency, and agility of acquiringand procuring IC products
and services.
• Implement IC-wide financial
standards, processes, tools, andservices to achieve fiscal efficiency,
accountability, and security.
• Enhance strategy-based
performance evaluation across the
IC that leverages both government
and industry best practices toenable informed IC businessdecisions and guide efficient
application of resources.

• Manage risk to intelligencecapabilities through IC-wide
continuity efforts to foster
resilience under all conditions.

2019 NIS - ENTERPRISE OBJECTIVES• Explore innovative means toadvance IC facilities, logistics,
environmental, and energy
programs to enable joint-use
functionality; increase efficiency,
sustainability, and supportability;
and achieve total asset
management.

19

PeopleForge and retain a diverse, inclusive, and expert workforce
to address enduring and emerging requirements andenable mission success.
Diversity is a collection of individual attributes that together help IC
elements pursue organizational objectives efficiently and effectively.
These attributes include but are not limited to characteristics suchas national origin, language, race, color, mental or physical disability,
ethnicity, sex, age, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or
expression, socioeconomic status, veteran status, and family
structure. Inclusion is a culture that connects each employee to theorganization; encourages collaboration, flexibility, and fairness; andleverages diversity throughout the organization so that all individuals
are able to participate and contribute to their full potential.
Linked together, diversity and inclusion drive innovation and enable
the IC to attract and retain the highly-skilled workforce needed tomeet mission requirements.
The IC is united in protecting and preserving national security, anobjective that can only be met with the right, trusted, agile, andwell-led workforce. IC personnel, including all civilians, military, andcontractors, must adhere to the Principles of Professional Ethics for
the IC. Effective approaches are needed to recruit, retain, develop,
and motivate employees who possess skills that are fundamental
to the intelligence mission, including critical thinking, foreign
language, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The
responsibility to lead and integrate the IC workforce extends beyond
the IC’s human capital, equal employment opportunity, and diversity
and inclusion community to span the entire enterprise. Similarly, all
IC employees are accountable for cultivating a performance-driven
culture that encourages collaboration, flexibility, and fairness.
The IC must have effective tools and resources that integrate
workforce planning, transformational leadership, continuous
learning, information sharing, performance management, andaccountability. Additionally, the IC will make long-term strategic
investments in the workforce to promote agility and mobility
throughout employees’ careers, including joint duty rotations, andensure that benefits, compensation, and work-life balance initiatives
are fully considered and implemented wherever feasible.
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3

TO MEET TH IS OBJ EC T I V E,
TH E IC WILL:• Create an inclusive environment
empowering managers andemployees at all levels to takeresponsibility and ownership for thediversity of the organization.
• Take measures to proactively
prevent discrimination,harassment, and fear of reprisal,enabling the workforce to perform
at its highest potential.
• Shape a diverse workforce
with the skills and capabilities
needed to address enduring
and emerging requirements.
• Invest in mid-level managers
and leaders to ensure they areappropriately trained, supported,and held accountable.
• Pursue common business functions
and practices for human capital,
diversity and inclusion, and equal
employment opportunity (EEO)
compliance programs to enable
informed IC human resource
investments and decisions.

Innovation
Find, create, and deploy scientific discoveries and newtechnologies, nurture innovative thought, advance tradecraft,and constantly improve mission and business processes toadvance the IC in a rapidly changing landscape.
Innovation—through technological advancements and improved
business practices—is critical to ensuring that the IC can provide
the strategic and tactical decision advantage that policymakers
and warfighters require. To continue meeting future challenges,
the IC must drive new levels of innovation by proactively
developing and rapidly incorporating breakthrough and incremental
technologies, ideas, and constructs. The IC must also foster
unconventional thinking and experimentation that address new,better ways of accomplishing the IC’s mission, especially those
approaches that emphasize acceleration, simplicity, and efficiency
without sacrificing quality and outcomes. These approaches
should increase insight, knowledge, and speed through artificial
intelligence, automation, and augmentation, where applicable.
To achieve this, IC leaders must be prepared to boldly accept
calculated risks to attain high-value results, and accept the factthat initial failures may precede a successful outcome.

4

TO MEET TH IS OBJ EC T I V E,
TH E IC WILL:• Conduct, leverage, protect, andoperationalize groundbreaking
research to create agile andrevolutionary IC capabilities.
• Nurture an enterprise-wide
atmosphere of innovation
capable of rapidly anddynamically adapting to newchallenges and opportunities.
• Explore novel operational
applications of technology
and other resources toadvance tradecraft and achieve
mission advantage.
• Continuously develop and adopt
cutting-edge mission and businessprocesses to improve intelligencecapabilities and services.

2019 NIS - ENTERPRISE OBJECTIVES
21

Information Sharing
and Safeguarding
Develop, enhance, integrate, and leverage IC capabilities andactivities to improve collaboration and the lawful discovery,
access, retrieval, and safeguarding of information.
The IC Information Environment (IE) includes the individuals,organizations, and information technology (IT) capabilities thatcollect, process, or share Sensitive Compartmented Information,or that, regardless of classification, are managed by the IC.

Mission success depends on the right people getting the rightinformation at the right time to inform decisionmaking. To dothis, the IC will take a cutting-edge approach to appropriately
access information, regardless of where the information
resides. Information that is better organized into appropriate
data formats and tagged with metadata to increase its quality
and usability will aid the transition to information-centeredintelligence processes. An integrated IC IE will enable the IC
to protect against external and insider threats, maintain the
public trust, protect privacy and civil liberties, and carry out
its mission. To do this, the IC must continue to adopt modern
data management practices to make IC data discoverable,
accessible, and usable through secure, modernized systems
and standards.

5

TO MEET TH IS OBJ EC T I V E,
TH E IC WILL:• Identify, validate, prioritize, andaddress capability and policy
requirements for the IC IE toenhance intelligence integrationand operate as a secure, effective,and efficient IC enterprise.
• Increase the speed, portability, andtrust of IC information system risk
assessments to instill stakeholder
confidence in the IC IE, andaccelerate delivery of mission
capability to users.
• Enhance foundational IC IT
capabilities and infrastructure toincrease mission effectiveness andreduce duplication.
• Develop and implement innovativemeans to manage, share, andprotect intelligence information inaccordance with law and policy.
• Leverage advanced analytics
with modern data extraction,correlation, and enrichment
capabilities to maximize the valueof IC data.

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Partnerships
Optimize partnerships to enhance intelligence and better
inform decisionmaking.
Partners consist of organizations and entities working with us
to advance national security priorities, including the U.S. military,
our allies, foreign intelligence and security services, other federal
departments and agencies, as well as state, local, and tribal
officials and private sector entities, as appropriate.
The IC’s partnerships are fundamental to our national security.
Effectively leveraging their collective capabilities, data, expertise,and insights make our partners force multipliers. The IC will
optimize existing partnerships and forge new relationships toenhance intelligence and inform decisions.

6

TO MEET TH IS OBJ EC T I V E,
TH E IC WILL:• Deepen mutual understanding
and collaboration among partners
to effectively inform decisions andenable action.
• Strengthen existing and develop
new partnerships to increase
access to information to meet
mission needs, in accordance withapplicable law.
• Institutionalize a strategic
approach to partner engagement
to facilitate collaboration
and understanding.

2019 NIS - ENTERPRISE OBJECTIVES
23

Privacy, Civil Liberties,
and Transparency
Safeguard privacy and civil liberties and practice appropriate
transparency to enhance accountability and public trust in
all we do.
The Principles of Intelligence Transparency for the Intelligence
Community provide general norms for the IC to follow in making
information publicly available that enhances public understandingof intelligence activities while continuing to protect information
when disclosure would harm national security.

The IC must be accountable to the American people in carrying out
its national security mission in a way that upholds the country’svalues. The core principles of protecting privacy and civil liberties
in our work and of providing appropriate transparency about ourwork, both internally and to the public, must be integrated into theIC’s programs and activities. Doing so is necessary to earn andretain public trust in the IC, which directly impacts IC authorities,
capabilities, and resources. Mission success depends on the IC’scommitment to these core principles.

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7

TO MEET TH IS OBJ EC T I V E,
TH E IC WILL:• Incorporate privacy and civil
liberties requirements into IC
policy and programs to ensurethat national values inform theintelligence mission.
• Engage proactively with oversight
institutions and our partners toenhance public understanding andtrust in the IC.
• Practice and promote
appropriate transparency in the
IC to make information publicly
available without jeopardizing
national security.

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Factors Affecting IC Performance:
Accomplishments, Risks, and Challenges
The IC is an increasingly integrated intelligence enterprise working toward the common
vision of a Nation made more secure by a fully integrated, agile, resilient, and innovative IC
that exemplifies America’s values. To this end, the IC has made significant accomplishments
towards NIS objectives, but much work remains.

Accomplishments
Through integration of effort, workforce initiatives,
IC partnerships, transparency, and technologicalinnovation, IC leaders and managers have promoteda more efficient, effective, and agile intelligence
enterprise that enables the United States to safeguard
our national interests in a challenging world.

Intelligence Integration
Increased intelligence integration has enabled the
IC to better optimize mutually supporting collection
and analysis activities, and more effectively manage
its resources, resulting in intelligence support thathas been critical to successful military, diplomatic,
humanitarian, and other relevant operations.
Examples of integrated IC mission successes include
the monitoring of the Iran nuclear program, theinvestigation of downed Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17, the monitoring of North Korean nuclear weapons
development, and the response to the Ebola virus
outbreak in West Africa.

IC Workforce
IC mission success is enabled by an inclusive work
environment and a talented and diverse workforce
with opportunities to cultivate career growth througha continued focus on developing and leveraging
diversity. As a result, the IC has consistently beenranked at the top of the best places to work in theFederal Government.
Through the IC Joint Duty Program, thousands ofcivilian personnel have gained expertise, serving
alongside their colleagues in partner agencies,
broadening their professional development,
26

enhancing collaboration and information sharing,and promoting transparency and cooperation.
Through this enriching program, our intelligenceprofessionals have grown and gained additional
experience and expertise and helped accomplish
the IC’s mission.

IC Partnerships
Significant progress has been made in building
capacity, standardizing practices, and sharing
information with partners in and outside the UnitedStates to help defend against and respond to foreignand foreign-inspired threats to U.S. interests, bothat home and abroad. The IC advanced intelligencesharing with foreign partners, notably in countering
terrorism and supporting military operations, andengaged in intelligence sharing activities with key
domestic partners.

Transparency
The Principles of Intelligence Transparency for
the IC facilitated decisions on making information
publicly available to promote general understandingof intelligence activities, while continuing to protect
information when disclosure would harm national
security. As a result, the IC established a publicly
available online repository for declassified documents,
official statements, speeches, and testimony and has
officially released thousands of pages of documents
and posted them in this repository.

Technological Innovation
By deploying new scientific discoveries andtechnologies, nurturing innovative thought, andimproving tradecraft and processes, the IC has

achieved greater mission advantage on important
issues. For example, IC leaders and managers
have promoted a culture of collaboration andintegration along with unification of intelligence
activities to deliver shared IT services andcapabilities across the IC. This integrated
approach will enable the IC to appropriately accessinformation and tools, regardless of where in the
IC they reside. Information that is better organizedand enriched by metadata will enable the transition
to information-centered intelligence processes,
while streamlining integrated data, applications,and services.
A pioneering program has developed new methods
for generating accurate and timely probabilistic
forecasts on a wide range of intelligence questions.
These forecasts have been used for National
Intelligence Estimates and other intelligenceproducts. To improve tradecraft, machine learning
research has led to new automated methods forforecasting political instability from social media,
news, financial data, web search queries, andthousands of other data streams. These innovative
applications are beginning to revolutionize the futureof intelligence to better inform our decisionmakers.

Risks and Challenges• Strategic risk refers to factors that affect theIC’s ability to provide sufficient intelligence
to inform decisions on national security
issues. Factors such as potentially degraded
operational environments and the number andcomplexity of national security threats, together
with resource constraints, may challenge theIC’s ability to fully monitor situations andwarn policymakers of all developments. The
IC needs to pursue new approaches to better
identify and communicate areas to accept risk
while maintaining an anticipatory and agile
posture against emerging threats.

• Programmatic (fiscal) risk refers to theconsequences of losing IC capabilities andresources due to unplanned or unforeseen
factors that impact the effective use of available
funds. Continued federal budget uncertainty
strains the IC’s ability to make deliberative andresponsive resource decisions. The outcome may
be overextended budgets or lack of cost-effective
solutions to address intelligence issues. The
IC needs to develop methods to efficiently shift
resources to mitigate programmatic (fiscal) risk
and avoid loss of vital programs, capabilities, andresource investments.
• Technological risk refers to the factors that
affect the IC’s scientific and innovative methods,
practices, tools, and skills. Some factors are
known, while others may be unforeseen. An
inability to stay current with rapid changes intechnology and industry standards may affectthe IC’s competitive advantage. Mitigation may
require improving data strategies, software, andinfrastructure to retain state-of-the-art capabilities.

2019 NIS - FACTORS AFFECTING IC PERFORMANCEThe NIS addresses various sources of risk andchallenges that IC elements are called upon to
mitigate. Risk is an uncertain event or condition thathas a negative effect on the IC’s ability to accomplish
its mission. Risk factors may have internal (areas theIC can control) and/or external (areas beyond the IC’scontrol) causes, requiring tailored mitigation strategies.

• Institutional risk refers to the factors that affectthe IC’s ability to execute effective mission andbusiness management practices. For example,
the likelihood of future unauthorized disclosures
is a known risk that, if realized, may negatively
affect intelligence collection, relations withdomestic and foreign partners, and publictrust. Better governance, auditing, and security
procedures are needed to mitigate the risk andminimize the impact. The IC must attract andretain the right, trusted, agile workforce thatpossesses skills such as the critical analytic,
scientific, technological, engineering, math,cyber, and foreign language skills required tosupport current and future mission challenges.
This includes continuing to make progress
recruiting and hiring a more diverse workforce
more comparable to external benchmarks, suchas those of the Federal workforce, the private
sector workforce, and the U.S. population.

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Organization of theIntelligence Community
The Intelligence Community is an integrated enterprise comprised of 17 Executive Branchagencies and organizations (generally referred to as “IC elements”) that conduct a variety ofintelligence activities and work together to promote national security. The DNI is the leaderof the IC and sets IC strategic priorities through the National Intelligence Strategy. Each IC
member contributes through the execution of its organization’s mission in accordance withstatutory responsibilities.

• Two independent agencies – the Office of the
Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and theCentral Intelligence Agency (CIA);E
STAT

TREASUR Y

INDE

PEN

DE

NT

AG

EN

LAND S ECURI T Y
HOME

ER
GY

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EN
NS

E

• Seven elements of other departments andagencies – the Department of Energy’s Officeof Intelligence and Counterintelligence; theDepartment of Homeland Security’s Office ofIntelligence and Analysis and the intelligenceand counterintelligence elements of the U.S.
Coast Guard; the Department of Justice’s Federal
Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement
Administration’s Office of National Security
Intelligence; the Department of State’s Bureau ofIntelligence and Research; and the Department of
the Treasury’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis.

JU

ST

ES

IC

CI

• Eight Department of Defense elements – theDefense Intelligence Agency (DIA), the National
Security Agency (NSA), the National GeospatialIntelligence Agency (NGA), the National
Reconnaissance Office (NRO), and the intelligenceand counterintelligence elements of the military
services—U.S. Air Force Intelligence, U.S. NavyIntelligence, U.S. Army Intelligence, and U.S. Marine
Corps Intelligence, which also receive guidance andoversight from the Under Secretary of Defense forIntelligence (USDI).

In addition to collection, analysis, and production,
IC elements serve in other roles. Functional
managers oversee and coordinate a specificintelligence discipline or capability and advise the
DNI on the performance of their functions within
and across IC elements. National Intelligence
Managers serve as the DNI’s principal advisers on
all aspects of intelligence collection, analysis, andcounterintelligence against a specific area of concern.
Program managers are IC element heads responsible
for executing the mission and overseeing theirelements’ budget activities. IC enterprise managers
align capabilities and business functions to enable
the mission.

E

The IC is comprised of the following
17 elements:

DEFE

Implementing the
National Intelligence Strategy
The DNI, through the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, provides the IC with overarchingoversight, direction, guidance, and coordination. IC elements execute their missions consistent with
their statutory authorities. All members of the IC workforce are responsible for understanding how
they contribute to the mission of the IC and executing their specific role to the best of their ability,
while safeguarding privacy and civil liberties and practicing appropriate transparency.

DNI

Drive the Strategic Direction for the IC.
Through the NIS, the DNI sets strategic direction for
the IC, bringing together the IC elements to address
challenges that individual elements cannot solve on
their own. The DNI provides direction for establishingand sustaining capabilities to enable mission success.

Lead Intelligence Integration. Under the
direction of the DNI, the core mission of the ODNI
is to lead and support IC integration; delivering
insights, driving capabilities, and investing in the
future. IC governance is the management of mission
and enterprise activities through intelligence
integration. Intelligence integration means coordinating
and synchronizing collection, analysis, andcounterintelligence so that they are fused, effectively
operating as one team. The DNI establishes policies
and standards to enable intelligence integration.

Direct the IC’s Budget. The National Intelligence
Program (NIP) is the IC’s budget. The NIS serves as
the DNI’s mechanism to align NIP resources and reportresource expenditures and performance to Congress.
The DNI leads an IC-wide effort to develop an integrated
NIP budget, maintaining strategic focus and cross-IC
budget awareness, to assure that NIP investments best
support national security goals and objectives. The DNIIC Elements

Align Strategies, Plans, and Actions. The NIS
informs the strategic plans of the IC elements. The
mission and enterprise objectives in the NIS shallbe incorporated and cascaded into the strategies
and plans of the IC elements. Functional managers,
National Intelligence Managers, Program managers,
and IC enterprise managers will align, synchronize,
and integrate their activities to the NIS.

Inform Resource Allocation. Program managers
are heads of IC elements responsible for executing
the missions of the IC. They oversee their element’s
budget activities, make investments in capabilities,
and execute expenditures within the NIP and the MIP
in the IC budget process. Each year they provide astrategic program briefing to the DNI and report toCongress on their respective programs.
Assess Outcomes. Activities, initiatives, andoperations addressing NIS mission and enterpriseobjectives require constant and consistent evaluation.
IC elements will document the specific impact of
their activities, initiatives and operations, the extent
to which this impact contributes to broader NIS
objectives, and any factors that impede their ability toadvance NIS objectives. Measuring progress towardmeeting NIS objectives is crucial to improving theoverall performance of the IC.

2019 NIS - IMPLEMENTING THE NIS

Enable IC Mission Execution. The DNI leads IC
mission execution through decisionmaking bodies,
IC strategies, IC budget and resource management,
development of IC capabilities, information sharing
and safeguarding, and partnering with domestic andforeign partners.

also participates in the development of annual budgets
for the Department of Defense IC elements under the
Military Intelligence Program (MIP). The DNI serves asa voice and advocate for the IC to Congress and otherexternal entities.

29

Conclusion
The NIS provides the IC with the DNI’s strategic direction for the next four years, aligns ICpriorities with other national strategies, and supports the IC’s mission to provide timely,
insightful, objective, and relevant intelligence and support to inform national security
decisions and to protect our Nation and its interests. The IC must fully reflect the NIS inagency strategic plans, annual budget requests, and justifications for the NIP. The DNI willassess IC element proposals, projects, and programs toward the objectives of the NIS torealize the IC’s vision of a Nation made more secure by a fully integrated, agile, resilient,and innovative Intelligence Community that exemplifies America’s values.

““

We have to become much more agile, moreinnovative, more creative.
— Daniel R. Coats, Director of National Intelligence

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31

The National Intelligence Strategyof the United States of America
IC Vision

A Nation made more secure by a fully integrated, agile, resilient, and innovative Intelligence
Community that exemplifies America’s values.

timely, insightful, objective, and relevant intelligence and support to inform national
IC Mission Provide
security decisions and to protect our Nation and its interests.

Customer Success

Our Customers
The President

National Security Council

Congress

Heads of Departments &Agencies of the Executive Branch

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
and senior military commanders

Others as the DNI
determines appropriate

Warfighters, policymakers,
diplomats, negotiators, andhomeland security, law enforcement& international officials

Designated state, local, tribal,& territorial governments andfirst responders

Mission Objectives

Strategic Intelligence
Enduring Interests

Current Operations Intelligence
Current and Planned Operations

Anticipatory Intelligence
Emerging Issues

Cyber Threat Intelligence
Counterterrorism
Counterproliferation
Counterintelligence and Security

Other Regional and Functional Issues

Enterprise Objectives

Integrated Mission Management

Integrated Business Management
PeopleInnovation

Information Sharing and Safeguarding
Partnerships
Privacy, Civil Liberties, and Transparency