The role of the Director of National Intelligence - Essay Example

However, strong oppositions on having a powerful office being handled by a single authority cannot be disregarded. Critics of the new intelligence community set up maintained that the system is so complex that it became hard to manage; hence doubts on its effectiveness continue to spread. According to an article by Priest and Arkin (2010) in the Washington Post, the intelligence community is enormous, with redundant agencies and tons of reports generated every day that many ends up being ignored, resulting to waste of resources and effort.

Consequently, the complexity of the intelligence community only causes the ODNI to lack focus on its various agencies. In addition, the President’s Intelligence Advisory Boards stressed that the ODNI must be “downsized but strengthen by transferring certain functions to other agencies” (Best, 2010, p. 6) because it cannot supervise and assume responsibility to the massive department on its own. The support of the Congress to the development of ODNI is also essential in strengthening the role of the latter, its functions and extent of authority in order to effectively lead the different intelligence agencies under its wing.

Nevertheless, the new role of the ODNI is still being developed. With just a few years of operation, the new intelligence system continues to face challenges in cooperating among agencies while sorting out critical reports on terrorism. It is too early to claim that the ODNI is a failure. Given the support of Congress in defining its role, power, and responsibilities, the ODNI can eventually learn how to manage its agencies more successfully. It should also consider reviewing the agencies doing the same work and identify critical reports to efficiently use their resources and manpower.