That said, we know we have a long way to go to reach the collaborative standard that technology makes possible today. And fourth, the intelligence business is fundamentally about skills and expertise and this means people, people in whom we need to invest much more to deal with future challenges. No system or technology by themselves will enable us to master the new threat environment or the continuous flow of information that confronts us. The expertise and skills of people will matter more than ever in the years to come. I won't talk so much about this day, but I cannot overstate its importance to our future.
Technology is no substitute for human expertise.
Let me say a few words about the changing threat environment. The world and the workplace of the CIA analyst have changed more in the past decade than in the previous 40 years of the Agency's existence. The single strategic threat from the Soviet Union, a remarkably stable intelligence target throughout the Cold War, has gone and is not coming back. The post-Cold War challenge has been increased by the revolution in information technology and telecommunications, which has fundamentally transformed the globe we cover, the service we provide consumers, and the workplace in which we function. Information abounds, though of varying quality, a lot of open-source material is relevant to our needs.