| Bureau of Intelligence and ResearchThe 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. Assessment of Threats and National Security Challenges for the U.S. On January 11, 2007, then-Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte provided an annual threat assessment to Congress. Following are some of the points he made in his testimony; the photos shown reflect issues he discussed. 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:
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