Intelligence Community: Providing Intelligence Support for the Incoming Conservative President

Key Chapter Title List

1. Overview: The Current State and Challenges of the U.S. Intelligence Community
2. Office of the Director of National Intelligence: Power, Limitations, and Reform Pathways
3. Central Intelligence Agency: Mission Execution, Bureaucracy, and Resource Reallocation
4. Covert Action: Utilization and Optimization as a Foreign Policy Tool
5. Preventing Intelligence from Being Used for Partisan Purposes: Restoring Neutrality and Credibility
6. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act: Necessity for Reform and Prevention of Abuse
7. Focus on China: Transformation, Reform, and Resource Allocation
8. National Counterintelligence and Security Center: Empowering Responses to Non-Traditional Threats
9. Additional Reform Areas: Analytical Integrity, Information Sharing, and Over-Classification
10. Technical Issues: Chief Information Officer, Space Domain, and Cover in the Digital Age
11. President's Daily Brief and the National Intelligence Council: Optimizing Intelligence Product Delivery
12. An Unfinished Experiment: Returning to a Lean, Effective Governance Model

Document Introduction

This report originates from the "2025 Presidential Transition Project," aiming to systematically assess the U.S. Intelligence Community for a potential future conservative president and provide comprehensive reform recommendations and an action framework. The report argues that while the Intelligence Community has undergone significant reforms post-9/11, its structure, culture, and operational models still face multiple challenges, making it difficult to effectively address new threats in an era of great power competition led by China.

The report first analyzes the power dilemma of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence since its establishment in 2004. Although the law intended to grant the DNI authority over the entire Intelligence Community, its actual power has been diluted, making it more of a coordinator than a leader, leading to siloed agencies, resource duplication, and poor integration. The report recommends clarifying and enhancing the DNI's leadership in key mission areas such as budget, personnel, cyber, and open-source intelligence through measures like amending Executive Order 12333, enabling it to effectively coordinate the 18 member agencies like a "conductor."

The Central Intelligence Agency, as the primary human intelligence and covert action agency, is reported to have issues with bureaucratic bloat, risk-averse culture, and resource allocation to non-core ideological agendas. Reform directions include appointing strong leadership to rebuild a mission-driven culture, streamlining headquarters redundancy, refocusing resources on high-risk, high-reward overseas missions, and reviving the adventurous spirit akin to the Office of Strategic Services.

The report dedicates significant space to discussing the core issue of preventing the politicization of intelligence. It cites cases such as the Russia investigation and the Hunter Biden laptop incident, pointing out that partisan behavior by senior and former intelligence officials has severely damaged the institution's credibility. To this end, the report proposes a series of measures to strengthen political neutrality norms, including severely punishing leakers, reforming security clearance procedures, requiring intelligence officials to stay out of the public eye, and restricting former officials from abusing their security clearances to participate in political debates.

Facing the "generational threat" posed by China, the report argues that a "whole-of-government" approach is necessary. This requires the Intelligence Community not only to significantly increase intelligence budgets related to China but also to deeply integrate counterintelligence work in technology, economics, supply chains, and academia, and enhance collaboration with the private sector and allies. Simultaneously, the report emphasizes the importance of rebuilding strategic analytical capabilities, noting that the current overemphasis on short-term secret intelligence is insufficient for long-term competition with China. It is essential to restore the deep strategic analysis of the Cold War era, capable of handling "puzzles" rather than just "secrets."

Furthermore, the report explores other key reform areas, including promoting a "mandatory sharing" policy to improve the timeliness of cyber threat intelligence, addressing over-classification to accelerate declassification processes, leveraging commercial space capabilities to enhance space domain intelligence collection, and practical challenges such as protecting agent identities in the digital age.

Ultimately, the report labels the current Intelligence Community, particularly the DNI's structure, as an "unfinished experiment." Its core recommendation is to return to the initially envisioned lean, networked coordination model. By granting leadership clear authority, insisting on political neutrality, strengthening accountability, and investing in key technical talent, the goal is to reshape an intelligence system that can effectively serve the President, defend national interests, and regain public trust.