This study contains the findings and recommendations of the Future of Intelligence Analysis Project, an eighteen-month effort that explored what must be done to provide the US government with an effective intelligence analysis capability in the future. Unlike most current studies, which analyzed a small number of recent intelligence failures, the project was forward-looking. It used the year 2020 as a notional date of reference because individuals currently entering the analytic workforce will be the seasoned analysts of 2020. The project focused on intelligence analysis and organized its research around the themes of analyst education, recruitment, training, management, organization, and retention. A series of four workshops and a capstone conference engaged analysts and managers from throughout the intelligence community in dialogue with nongovernment experts. Members of the following agencies and organizations participated: the Office of the Director of National Intelligence; the Central Intelligence Agency; the Defense Intelligence Agency; the National Security Agency; the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency; the Office of Naval Intelligence; Army Intelligence; the National Ground Intelligence Center; the Joint Military Intelligence College; the Sherman Kent School for Intelligence Analysis; the Foreign Broadcast Information Service; the National Air and Space Intelligence Center; Headquarters Marine Corps; Marine Corps Intelligence Activity; the National Maritime Intelligence Center; the Department of Homeland Security; the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and the U.S. Coast Guard. A panel of distinguished experts critiqued a preliminary draft of the report.
This panel consisted of the Honorable Richard Danzig, former Secretary of the Navy; John C. Gannon, former Chairman of the National Intelligence Council and former Staff Director of the House Select Committee on Homeland Security; Christopher Kojm, President of the 9/11 Discourse Project and former Deputy Director of the 9/11 Commission; John M. (Mike) McConnell, Vice Admiral, U.S. Navy (ret.), former Director of the National Security Agency; and the Honorable John E. McLaughlin, former Acting Director of Central Intelligence. Their comments have been integrated into this report, and are included in detail in Appendices B through F.