The Role of Intelligence in Policy Making

The role of the Intelligence Community in policymaking is often misunderstood or overlooked when analyzing states' behavior. This article introduces a framework that clarifies the roles of each actor in the relationship between intelligence analysts and policymakers, and how the interactions of the two synthesize to produce actionable policy. There are many obstacles for both parties in reaching valid, fact-based conclusions from intelligence. Understanding these obstacles will allow for greater opportunities to avoid them and produce better, sounder intelligence analysis and policy creation.