Bureau of Intelligence and Research

The Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), drawing on all-source intelligence, provides value-added independent analysis of events to Department policymakers, ensures that intelligence activities support foreign policy and national security purposes; and serves as the focal point in the Department for ensuring policy review of sensitive counterintelligence and law enforcement activities. INR's primary mission is to harness intelligence to serve U.S. diplomacy. The bureau also analyzes geographical and international boundary issues. INR is a member of the U.S. intelligence community.

The nation requires more from its Intelligence Community than ever before because the U.S. confronts a greater diversity of threats and challenges than ever before. Globalization, the defining characteristic of our age, requires global intelligence coverage. Globalization is not a "threat" in and of itself--it has more positive than negative characteristics. But globalization contributes to the array of U.S. national security challenges, which are shaped by dramatic advances in telecommunications, technology, new centers of economic growth, and the consequences of crises within traditional cultures. National security challenges for the U.S. include:

• Terrorist threats to the U.S., to its national security interests, and to its allies;
• Challenges in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan;
• Proliferation of weapons and delivery systems in states of key concern, such as Iran and North Korea;
• Regional conflicts, instability, and reconfigurations of power and influence in the Middle East, major African states, Latin America, Asia, and Eurasia; and
• Energy security and competition for supplies.

Iraqi woman parliamentarian arrives for first session.

Pakistani troops push bombed vehicle.

Iranian nuclear power plant.

Man walks on Nigerian oil pipelines.

Afghan boy tends opium poppy field.