An Intelligence agency is one of the significant government departments that collects and provides foreign, political and military-related information to policy makers in order to ensure national security. The selected Intelligence agency for this assignment is Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). CIA is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the United States federal government and the same works for the national security (Rondina, 2017). The reason for selecting this agency for the assignment report is it is significance and incredible contribution to national security. This agency is an indispensable part of the US defense system and dealt with many of the critical issues in the past, which is discussed in this assignment further. The details related to this agency such as history, roles, responsibilities, agendas, and challenges are detailed in the discussion below.
In this topic, the aspects related to history and development of the subjective agency i.e. CIA has been elaborated here. Similar to all other government and national security agency, CIA was also not been created and developed overnight and this agency has completed a long journey. Every bit of it is history is not possible to cover, therefore the major developments and changes are mentioned herewith. Prior to the official establishment of CIA also, government was working on the subject of national security and for this reason, it has developed few agencies like Office of the Coordinator of Information (COI), Office of Strategic Services (OSS), Strategic Services Unit (SSU) and Central Intelligence Group (CIG) during the period from 1941 to 1946. CIG was a dedicated agency in the concerned area i.e. national security but was bounded by the restriction of the Department of State and the armed services. This was the reason for that this agency further becomes an independent one and been renamed with “Central Intelligence Agency” in the year 1947 (Durbin, 2017). Hence, this can mention here that 1947 was the year when CIA was founded officially.
President of that time had appointed Mr. Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter as director of this agency. CIA has established under the National Security Act 1947 (Vilasi, 2014). At the time of creation of this agency, the mission of the same was not well defined by the said act; hence, the authority has added some lead objectives of this agency in the act instead altering the act. Two years later, the president has signed the specific act named “Central Intelligence Agency Act.” This separate act provides following powers to this agency
By the year 1953, this agency became an established and significant authority of government. At this time, CIA was doing well in it is functioning area and the same has achieved it is basic structure and also scaled it to retained for the next 20 years. In conjunction with this, by this year CIA was six times in terms of size in comparison to the year 1947. Cause of good working and functions on 4th August 1955, the president has signed a bill to construct headquarters for this agency. In the year 1961, employees of CIA have started to relocate from discordant buildings in Washington to newly constructed headquarters. The year 1984 was also an important year for CIA when this agency got the exemption from Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The year 2004 was a significant year in the history of CIA as in this year president has signed the “Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act “due to that restructuring model became applied to this agency (Taylor, 2012).
In the year 2017, CIA was America’s as well as the world’s chief intelligence agency. Ensuring the national security by way of a collection of information, sharing the same with the defense department, conduction covert operation and maintaining foreign political influence are the major responsibility of CIA.
The vision of CIA is to provide strategic advantages to the United States by it are insights, actions, and information. Aims of this agency are far crucial to discuss. As it is an intelligence agency, it focuses on the collection of data, crucial information, and terrorism-related news. While using the ideology, this agency, focuses on human psychology. What the officers think about a particular situation and dhow they need to conduct, all these aspects are a part of Ideology used by this agency. The lead vision of CIA is to ensure national security in the US by it is functions and activities.
Aims of this agency are to do the required task carefully and efficiently. In conjunction with this, the following are the lead Aims of CIA:-
Further, CIA is very committed towards it is visions, mission, and aims. This agency has agenda to stop terrorist activities and to provide a safe and peaceful environment to the citizen of US. Since the establishment of CIA, the same has the aim to help government authorities on the matters related to national security.
In the context of an organization, a structure refers to the organization hierarchy in general. Being a significant organization in the area of national security, this agency has adopted many of the methods of working, that is detailed hereunder after a brief of CIA’s structure.
In CIA, mainly four offices of directors are there. These offices are:
Further, according to the different functions and departments, various directories have also been established by this agency. These directories are classified as analysis, digital innovation, operations, science & technology and support. CIA has also it is mission centers to that this agency serves (fas.org (b), 2018).
Methods of CIA are the intelligence techniques that this agency uses in the course of the performance of it is a duty. These techniques are mentioned hereunder:-
In addition to the above, CIA also uses many other methods such as Intercepting Communications, Open-Source Intelligence, Imagery intelligence and so on (ciaagentedu.org, 2018).
As mentioned earlier, that CIA is the lead intelligence agency of US; hence the same consists of some defined priorities, targets, and roles. In this discussion, the role, priorities, and targets of this agency are defined and summarize in order to provide a glance over the topic. Priority of the CIA is to provide the correct intelligence-related information to the respective government departments. In order to understand the priorities and targets of this agency, it is necessary to mention the role of the same. What is the basis of those policies? Here the role of CIA comes into light. As this is the duty of CIA to provide security-related data to authorities for the preparation of security policies, lead priority of this agency is to provide such data accurately and timely. Targets and priorities of this agency are nearly connected. The lead target of CIA is to develop the strategies to set the substantive priorities that fulfill the competing demands of military planners, policymakers, and law enforcement officials for long-term analysis, strategic warning, and current intelligence and to provide them guidance on more specific requirements (Piet and Kanet, 2016).
CIA plays a great role in the development of society. A society as well a nation cannot be developed in a well-versed manner until unless the same remains fear free. This is necessary to mention here that although CIA is the intelligence agency of US yet the same has significant role and value across the globe. In addition, to ensure the national security of the US, this agency also works for the international security by providing necessary information and ideas for different treaties. Wars, weapons, defense, secrecy, freedom, and official integrity, these are some valuable factors of a nation’s security. CIA is the department that keeps these factors in consideration. The defense department is one of the significant departments of US but CIA works harder in the field of security of citizens in comparison to the defense department as it collects the crucial information and provides the summary thereof. CIA has saved many of the lives. Many of the initiatives have taken by this agency, for Instance, in the year 2002, the office of the general council of this agency started discussing interrogation techniques with the office of legal council’s lawyers (ciasavedlives.com, 2018). After reviewing the targets and priorities, this can state here that the role of CIA cannot be neglected, as the same is far significant.
Being an intelligence agency, CIA has faced so many challenges in the past and facing the same in present. In this heading, the challenges which this agency has faced in past and also facing in present are detailed. As this agency is dedicated towards national security and terrorism prevention, the same need some liberty and level of individual authority. CIA has to take immediate action in order to protect citizens and the country from terrorist attacks. Critics have portrayed a negative image of this agency. According to them CIA often does the tasks and take the decision without taking approval of the executive branch of US government. In the year 2005, a presidential committee, which was examining intelligence failures mentioned in it, is released a report that CIA has inaccurately assessed Iraq’s prewar efforts to acquire and produce destruction (Pringle, 2018). In addition to this, CIA has faced many other challenges and critics over the period. As earlier mentioned that in the year 2017, CIA becomes the world’s premier agency, yet it is facing a number of challenges. These challenges are mentioned hereunder:-
As discussed in the aforesaid topics, that CIA is one of the important intelligence agency of the nation, it has a great history and the same has also some challenges. Now, under this heading, a brief assessment of this agency is being done. Regardless of the critics and negatives, CIA is very effective in it is operations. CIA is one of the lead intelligence agencies of the world that majorly collects all kind of information such as HUMINT, ELINT, OPEN SOURCE, and SIGINT. CIA delivers and shares this information with the defense departments and in this way contribute it is efforts to national security. CIA has very dedicated staff and for this reason, it is effectiveness enhances. The success of CIA can be measured by it is development over the years. In the starting years from 1941 to 1946, the government has established 3 to 4 agencies but none out of them was able to fulfill the expectations of the country. It is been 70 years of continuous service that CIA is providing to the country.
Being a superpower the US had several threats, but it has observed that CIA has controlled such issues up to a great level. During the financial year 1999, the intelligence community has prepared and provided several reports in the area to support policymakers. In order to evaluate the performance and effectiveness of the agency, this is important to state that in addition to positives, some loopholes are also there in the system of CIA. It has noted in the past few years that officers and employees of CIA are taking early retirement; because they want to get rid out of that building (Goodman, 2018). The reason for the same is that CIA is being vast in the size and it is becoming hectic for the employees to work in an organization of this size. If one focuses on the unique features of CIA, then this would not be wrong to mention that this is the primary intelligence agency and for this reason is different from the other agencies of the country. At present 17 intelligence agencies exist in the US. These intelligence agencies are the Defence Intelligence Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, National Security Agency and many more (Agrawal, 2017). All these agencies have their different functions and significance. Not similar to other agencies, CIA has it is an independent working area and the same has more responsibilities and authorities in comparison to other agencies. Where all these agencies have their different working style, the role of CIA becomes more significant due to it is the nature of work. Central Intelligence Agency keeps an eye on the affairs of the foreign government and organizes covert operations. Security is an important factor and becomes more important as soon as a factor called the nation to add on to this.
The main mission of National Security Agency is signal intelligence and processing of cryptology. On the other side, the Defense Intelligence Agency works as the lead intelligence agency for the Department of Defense (Szoldra, 2013). These all intelligence agencies have their headquarters in various locations around the country. The State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research, The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s National Security Branch, The Dept. of Energy, and more than 5 agencies have their headquarters in Washington. Central Intelligence Agency has it is headquarter in Langley, Va. in the territory of United State (Ghosts of DC, 2018). By reviewing different aspects of various domestic agencies of the US, this can state that in terms of functions, significance, and size, CIA is different from rest of the agencies.
Conclusion
After the previously mentioned discussion, it can be concluded that CIA is the lead Intelligence Agency, of US. Among all the 17 intelligence agencies of this country, CIA is the one that has a certain level of independence and authorities. As earlier mentioned that CIA focuses on the tasks and actions of foreign governments, this can be stated that this agency acts in a very significant manner in the area of national security. Since 1947 till today, CIA has faced so many issues yet the same is working continuously and now this agency is focusing on the recruitment of new and young talent in the organization.
References
Agrawal, N. (2017) There’s more than the CIA and FBI: The 17 agencies that make up the U.S. intelligence community. [online] Available from: https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-17-intelligence-agencies-20170112-story.html [Accessed on 20.07.18]
Cia.gov. (a) (2018) CIA Organization Chart. [online] Available from: https://www.cia.gov/about-cia/leadership/cia-organization-chart.html [Accessed on 19.07.18]
Cia.gov. (b) (2018) Intelligence Techniques.[online] Available from: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/intelligence-history/intelligence/intelltech.html [Accessed on 19.07.18]
Cia.gov. (c) (2018) CIA Vision, Mission, Ethos & Challenges.[online] Available from: https://www.cia.gov/about-cia/cia-vision-mission-values [Accessed on 20.07.18]
ciaagentedu.org. (2018) CIA Offices of the Director Explained.[online] Available from: https://www.ciaagentedu.org/offices-of-the-director/ [Accessed on 20.07.18]
ciasavedlives.com (2018) CIA saved Lives. [online] Available from: https://ciasavedlives.com/timeline.html
Durbin, B. (2017) The CIA and the Politics of US Intelligence Reform. UK: Cambridge University Press.
fas.org (b), (2018) The Central Intelligence Agency. [online] Available from: https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/int010.html [Accessed on 19.07.18]
fas.org. (a) (2018) Vision, Mission, and Values of the Central Intelligence Agency.[online] Available from: https://fas.org/irp/cia/product/facttell/vision.htm [Accessed on 16.07.18]
Ghosts of DC. (2018) Three Things About The Cia’s Langley Headquarters. [online] Available from: https://ghostsofdc.org/2013/10/02/cia-langley-virginia/ [Accessed on 20.07.18]
Goodman, M. (2018) The CIA: History and Performance.[online] Available from: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/darkside/themes/cia.html [Accessed on 19.07.18]
Piet, R. and Kanet, R.E. (2016). Shifting Priorities in Russia’s Foreign and Security Policy.Oxon : Rutledge.
Pringle, R. W. (2018) Central Intelligence Agency. [online] Available from: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Central-Intelligence-Agency [Accessed on 18.07.18]
Rondina, C. (2017) Who Are the Heroes.PA:Dorrance Publishing.
Slick, S. (2011) The Intelligence Community Faces Sharp Challenges, but No Crisis.[online] Available from: https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/01/11/the-intelligence-community-faces-sharp-challenges-but-no-crisis/ [Accessed on 20.07.18]
Sternberg, R. J. (2018) The Nature of Human Intelligence. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Szoldra, P. (2013) These 17 Agencies Make Up The Most Sophisticated Spy Network In The World.[online] Available from: https://www.businessinsider.in/These-17-Agencies-Make-Up-The-Most-Sophisticated-Spy-Network-In-The-World/articleshow/21134654.cms [Accessed on 19.07.18]
Taylor, C. (2012) Presidential Liability. US: Xlibris Corporation.
Vilasi, A. C. (2014) The History of the Central Intelligence Agency (C.I.A.).USA: Author House.
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