Annual Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community – Office of the Director of National Intelligence

Next to Warren Buffett’s annual letter to stockholders, one of the most eagerly anticipated document every year is the Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community.  From Wikipedia:

This report is delivered at a hearing of the US Senate Select Intelligence Committee that has occurred each year since 2006, until 2020. Each hearing includes at least one “open” or unclassified session and the release of a document that details the high level unclassified assessments of the US intelligence community for a given year.

The unclassified version of the report of April 9, 2021 was presented April 14, 2021 by the Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines and others at a hearing of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. The assessment often analyzes the perspective of the US intelligence community and how it will affect US actions. The Trump administration, without explanation, postponed the DNI’s annual Worldwide Threat Assessment which warns that the U.S. remains unprepared for a global pandemic. The office of the DNI was scheduled to deliver the Assessment to the House Intelligence Committee on February 12, 2020.

If you work for a smaller organization, you may not find this report to be extremely relevant.  However, for larger organizations, one thought:  The perils included in this report have the potential to greatly impact the delivery of your services and/or the fulfillment of your mission.

From the report…

This annual report of worldwide threats to the national security of the United States responds to Section 617 of the FY21 Intelligence Authorization Act (P.L. 116-260). This report reflects the collective insights of the Intelligence Community (IC), which is committed every day to providing the nuanced, independent, and  unvarnished intelligence that policymakers, warfighters, and domestic law enforcement personnel need to protect American lives and America’s interests anywhere in the world.

This assessment focuses on the most direct, serious threats to the United States during the next year. The order of the topics presented in this assessment does not necessarily indicate their relative importance or the magnitude of the threats in the view of the IC.

All require a robust intelligence response, including those where a near-term focus may help head off greater threats in the future, such as climate change and environmental degradation

For the rest of this report, click here.