In this episode of Threat & Theory, Evan Burgher sits down with retired Naval Intelligence Officer Captain Howard Hart to demystify how the U.S. intelligence community actually works, and why it’s intentionally fragmented by design. Using China as the case study, Howard explains why there’s no single “China problem,” but many competing problem sets viewed through different agency lenses, from CIA’s strategic focus to NSA’s signals capabilities and DIA’s long-range defense priorities. The conversation breaks down what the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) really does (coordination, not command), why dissent and analytical competition matter, and how consensus products like the Annual Threat Assessment are built. They also unpack a key lesson from recent controversy: sometimes intelligence doesn’t fail because it’s wrong, it fails because it’s too cautious to be clear.

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