The Intelligence Product is Foundational to the National Security Enterprise
May 28, 2025
Our national security enterprise, a huge machine consisting of key elements within the defense department. (DoD), the members of the intelligence community (IC) the National Security Council (NSC), the FBI, pieces of several other agencies and in some cases stand-alone entities within academia and well established, non-partisan think tanks, is extraordinarily dependent on quality intelligence to effectively carry out its responsibilities. Today the integrity of this essential enterprise, uniquely at the forefront of the defense of the Republic, is under a kind of stress that is unprecedented in the modern era. It is sometimes hard to know looking in from the outside, but there are nagging doubts that it is collaborating among its internal constituents as well as it should.
Why is this?
The NSC itself is being downsized not only in terms of numbers (not necessarily a bad thing) but a lessened emphasis on its traditionally non-partisan makeup and diverse representation of the many experts of different disciplines that have historically staffed the NSC from a variety of intelligence agencies. That threatens to make the NSC less of a strategic advisory body, akin to the classic design of the late Brent Scowcroft, and more of a spokesperson for and enforcer of administration policy. The Department of Defense is more of an action agent than an intelligence collector, but the input into policy formulation from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and a world-wide presence of Defense Attaches are significant contributors. The extent to which chaos at the senior leadership levels of DoD presents the real possibility that the input of these agencies could be rendered less influential and could risk confrontation with political trends at the senior levels. Another element of the national security enterprise is the counterintelligence role played by the FBI, a critical capability which is being undermined by the reallocation of people and changing priorities emphasizing domestic issues under the new leadership. The critical role played by the National Security Agency cannot be underestimated, given its panoply of specialized skills and technologies, but it has suffered the loss of an extremely qualified leader and some disruption has followed, the extent of which is not yet clear.
In short, each of these agencies, departments and staffs plays its part in making up the national security enterprise. And each is troubled. Some are both intelligence producers and intelligence consumers. But as a consumer of the intelligence product, the NSC is particularly important as it is a kind of last stop and the gateway to the White House and the ultimate formulation of policy.
The final steps in producing a reliable intelligence product to policy makers lies in the delivery of the assessment; is it telling what it thinks straight up, is it hard hitting where and when it needs to be, has it been cribbed to soften unpleasant themes or hard edges in order to avoid upsetting a senior consumer, and how will it handle assessments that might not only conflict with administration policy but may have to deal with existing administration policies that may be based on faulty or misconstrued realities?
The extent to which consequences from the recent firing of two senior intelligence officers by the Director of National Intelligence may have seeped unwanted into the ranks of mid-level and senior analysts will take time to make themselves known. But whatever those consequences may be, they are not likely to be in the best interests of making our intelligence products the best they can be or sound like a rewarding slap on the back for a job well done.
Initially founded in 2016, The Steady State is a nonpartisan, nonprofit 501(c)(4) organization of more than 270 former senior national security professionals. Our membership includes former officials from the CIA, FBI, Department of State, Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security. Drawing on deep expertise across national security disciplines including intelligence, diplomacy, military affairs and law, we advocate for constitutional democracy, the rule of law and the preservation of America’s national security institutions.