Given the continuing information revolution, intelligence organizations cannot hope to be the sole source and repository of privileged information upon which policy makers base many crucial decision. Rather, intelligence analysis can profit greatly by tapping into the vast expertise, research, and other information found in academia, nongovernmental organizations, the business sector, and various intergovernmental organizations. The NIC Project's goal is to enhance policy formulation by improving the breadth and depth of the analyses upon which policies are based. To this end, the project brings groups of scholars and other experts together with members of the U.S. intelligence community to examine central questions about the international challenges facing the United States in the twenty-first century. The project utilizes both foreign and domestic open sources of information.
All work is conducted on an unclassified basis.
Thus far, the project has helped the NIC expand its understanding of the factors affecting the fourth and fifth of the seven Strategic Themes announced by the Director of Central Intelligence in 1999. Typically, each phase of the project begins with a survey of the scholarly literature and a poll of leading scholars to identify the different and often competing approaches to the topic in question. The goal is to showcase several research efforts that, when taken together, provide insights into a number of dimensions of the topics under examination while highlighting disagreements among findings. Conferences include not only summary presentations by scholars who have already contributed to the understanding of the topic through consultations, workshops, and papers, but also presentations by new participants. Summaries of conference proceedings and commissioned papers will soon be posted on the National Intelligence Council website.