The Director of National Intelligence exercises authority and maintains global awareness through a network of DNI Representatives deployed across the intelligence community and around the world.
“DNI Representatives serve as the principal advisors to their assigned organizations for IC matters, as a conduit between the DNI and their assigned organizations, and as the DNI’s personal representatives to a variety of U.S. and foreign partners and international organizations,” according to a declassified December 2009 Intelligence Community Directive that was made public last week. See DNI Representatives, ICD 402, 23 December 2009, amended 06 September 2012.
DNI Representatives help to execute DNI policies and to collect information for reporting back to the DNI.
That is, they both “facilitate and monitor the implementation of DNI direction, policies, and procedures” and they “promptly inform the DNI or his designee of significant issues, operations, or incidents.”
And in language that recalls the broadly permissive statutory provision for CIA covert action, the Directive says that DNI Representatives will also “Perform other duties as the DNI determines.”
“Organizations and locations to be considered for DNI Representatives include U.S. Diplomatic Missions; military organizations; organizations where there is a large IC presence, diverse mission requirements, significant interaction with foreign intelligence and security services or international organizations; and other places deemed appropriate,” the Directive says.
A prior version of Intelligence Community Directive 402 (dated May 19, 2009) generated friction between then-DNI Dennis C. Blair and the Central Intelligence Agency because it asserted that the DNI could appoint his own Representatives in foreign countries to serve alongside the CIA station chiefs in those countries. CIA resisted that assertion and reportedly prevailed.
The revised directive now states that “In all cases the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Chief of Station shall serve as the DNI Representative [classified phrase deleted].”
However, “In instances where the DNI believes that a Chief of Station is not performing effectively his essential functions as a DNI Representative, the DNI shall convey his concerns directly to the Director of the CIA, and may recommend that the individual be removed if those concerns have not been resolved to the satisfaction of the DNI within a period of six months.”
With 2000 nuclear weapons on alert, far more powerful than the first bomb tested in the Jornada Del Muerto during the Trinity Test 80 years ago, our world has been fundamentally altered.
As the United States continues nuclear modernization on all legs of its nuclear triad through the creation of new variants of warheads, missiles, and delivery platforms, examining the effects of nuclear weapons production on the public is ever more pressing.
“The first rule of government transformation is: there are a lot of rules. And there should be-ish. But we don’t need to wait for permission to rewrite them. Let’s go fix and build some things and show how it’s done.”
To better understand what might drive the way we live, learn, and work in 2050, we’re asking the community to share their expertise and thoughts about how key factors like research and development infrastructure and automation will shape the trajectory of the ecosystem.