- The report argues that the Intelligence Community’s main challenge is winning a faster race for actionable insight in a data-rich rivalry, especially as commercial actors increasingly exploit sources once unique to government.
- It concludes that U.S. intelligence has enduring advantages over authoritarian rivals because of its ethos of objectivity, constitutional mission, and collaborative relationships with allies and partners.
- The report warns that the most consequential intelligence failure in competition with the PRC would be failing to support U.S. strategy against economic and technological challenges.
- It recommends community-wide digital transformation driven by senior leaders, with stronger technology education, flexible teams, improved data architecture, and revised approaches to talent, acquisition, and security risk.
- The report calls for a dedicated open source capability to collect, acquire, process, analyze, and disseminate publicly and commercially available information for government and public use competent agencies at multiple levels should share classified and unclassified information more effectively, while protecting privacy and proprietary information, to improve national techno-economic awareness.
The report examines how the U.S. Intelligence Community should compete in an information-rich environment shaped by geopolitical rivalry with the People’s Republic of China, expanding data flows, commercialized collection capabilities, and foreign influence operations. It argues that the community’s enduring strengths, including objectivity, national mission, and allied partnerships, remain valuable but are insufficient without sustained digital transformation. Prepared by SCSP staff and not presented as a consensus document, the report combines strategic diagnosis with institutional recommendations. It finds that future intelligence failure is more likely to involve inadequate support for strategy in techno-economic competition than an unexpected strategic shock. The report calls for top-down leadership on artificial intelligence adoption, improved data infrastructure, more flexible talent and security practices, a dedicated open source capability, and stronger techno-economic intelligence centered on foreign industries, supply chains, finance, and technology. It also recommends operationalizing mechanisms to counter foreign adversarial influence, including preemptive exposure and public warnings where appropriate. Its policy relevance lies in urging the White House, Congress, and intelligence leaders to align authorities, resources, workforce practices, and technology adoption so intelligence can better support U.S. statecraft.
U.S. intelligence is capable of rising to the occasion and delivering on the seemingly impossible and the once-unthinkable.
SCSP
- Create a Digital Experimentation and Transformation Unit. The DNI should sponsor the creation of a Digital Experimentation and Transformation Unit to run pilot projects that address community-wide challenges.
- Encourage Open Source Experimentation with Tiger Teams. The DNI should charge individual IC entities with assembling Tiger Teams to experiment with open sources on issues of strategic interest.
- Build Workforce Expertise through Modernized Incentive Structures. Establish or expand incentives programs to reward analysts with a demonstrated proficiency in computer programming languages.
- Equip Personnel with Essential Tools. IC analysts and collectors should have access to basic tools and training to include publicly available information in their work.
Published by the Special Competitive Studies Project. Co-publishers and external authors, where they exist, are credited in the byline above.