Who listens.
Who learns.
Who decides.

An intelligence agency is a government organisation that collects, evaluates and reports information relevant to national security and public decision-making.

Their public roles can include gathering information, analysing events and threats, counterintelligence, signals intelligence, cyber security and briefing government decision-makers.

Their publicly stated purpose is to help protect national security, citizens and lawful institutions by reducing uncertainty, identifying threats and giving leaders earlier warning before important decisions.

That is their public mandate: to help protect the country, its people and its institutions from serious threats. Because intelligence powers can be intrusive, public trust also depends on clear law, professional standards and effective executive, legislative or judicial oversight.

Intelligence teams work with decision-makers to define questions, then collect, process and analyse information and share their assessments. Decision-makers’ feedback helps the teams identify what to investigate next.

Depending on their mandate, agencies may use human sources, intercepted signals, imagery, technical sensors, liaison reporting and legally available open sources.

They are broad collection disciplines: human intelligence, signals intelligence, geospatial intelligence and open-source intelligence.

Foreign services focus mainly on people and events outside the country. Domestic services focus on threats and security inside it, though national systems divide these responsibilities differently.

The CIA is a foreign-intelligence and all-source analysis agency with a major human-intelligence role. The NSA specialises in foreign signals intelligence and national-security cyber systems.

Not always. In services such as MI6, an officer is a staff member, while an agent is a person who agrees to provide information or access.

Usually, no. They provide information and assessments; authorised political leaders and government officials make policy decisions.

Oversight varies by country and may involve ministers, legislatures, courts, inspectors, commissioners and specialist review bodies.

Yes. Agencies cooperate with domestic partners and foreign liaison services, although what is shared depends on law, trust, policy and source protection.

Public career pages describe roles for analysts, linguists, engineers, cyber specialists, data scientists, case officers, researchers, security staff and operational support teams.

No. Intelligence can combine classified reporting with public records, journalism, academic research, satellite imagery and commercial data.

Assessments are judgments made from incomplete evidence. Good analysis tests sources, explains alternatives and communicates confidence and uncertainty.

Generally, no. Police investigate crimes and enforce law, while intelligence agencies collect and assess information for security decisions. Some dedicated security services also have enforcement powers. This directory excludes ordinary police, police security services and prosecution from institutional profiles, while naming them in country context when needed to explain who performs a function. Dedicated statutory intelligence or protective bodies are assessed by their main mandate, not simply by whether personnel may make arrests.