State Department (State Dept.)

The department advises the president in the formulation and execution of foreign policy and promotes the long-range security and well-being of the United States. The department determines and analyzes the facts relating to U.S. overseas interests, makes recommendations on policy and future action, and takes the necessary steps to carry out established policy.

The secretary of state is responsible for the overall direction, coordination and supervision of U.S. foreign relations and for the interdepartmental activities of the U.S. government abroad. The secretary is the first-ranking member of the Cabinet, is a member of the National Security Council and is in charge of the operations of the department, including the Foreign Service.

Foreign affairs activities are handled by the State Department's geographic bureaus, which include the bureaus of African Affairs, European and Eurasian Affairs, East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Near East Affairs, South and Asian Affairs, and Western Hemisphere Affairs.

The State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) is one of 16 elements of the intelligence community (IC). INR provides expert intelligence analysis to the secretary of state and senior policymakers. INR serves as the focal point within the Department of State for all policy issues and activities involving the IC. The INR assistant secretary reports directly to the secretary of state and serves as the secretary’s principal adviser on all intelligence matters.

INR's foreign affairs analysts draw on all-source intelligence, diplomatic reporting, INR's public opinion polling, and interaction with U.S. and foreign scholars. Their strong regional and functional backgrounds allow them to respond rapidly to changing policy priorities and to provide early warning and in-depth analysis of events and trends that affect U.S. foreign policy and national security interests. INR analysts -- a combination of Foreign Service officers often with extensive in-country experience and Civil Service specialists with in-depth expertise -- cover all countries and regional or transnational issues.

INR provides daily briefings, reports and memos to the secretary and other department principals. INR also briefs members of Congress and their staffs as appropriate. INR products cover the world on foreign-relations issues such as political/military developments, terrorism, narcotics and trade. INR contributes to the IC's national intelligence estimates, the presidential daily brief and other analyses. In support of the statutory authority of the secretary of state and Chiefs of Mission for the conduct of foreign policy and oversight of U.S. government activities overseas, INR coordinates on behalf of the department on issues concerning intelligence, counterintelligence and special operations. INR participates in a wide variety of IC working groups and policymaking committees, including those involving visa denial, intelligence sharing, analytic production, requirements and evaluation for collection in all intelligence disciplines.

INR develops intelligence policy for the Department of State and works to harmonize all agencies’ intelligence activities abroad with U.S. policy. Acting to ensure that collection resources and priorities accord with U.S. diplomatic interests and requirements, INR engages Chiefs of Mission, Department of State resource managers, and the IC for this purpose.

In addition to all-source analysis and intelligence policy coordination, INR's third core activity is to serve as the Director of National Intelligence's recently named executive agent for outreach. In this role, INR leverages community resources to tap into the expertise of academia, think tanks, research councils, non-governmental organizations and the private sector to expand the universe of knowledge available to policymakers and the intelligence community.