About 40 University of Michigan students gathered in Weill Hall Wednesday evening for a fireside chat with U-M alum Charles Luftig, deputy director of National Intelligence for Policy and Capabilities, moderated by Javed Ali, associate professor of practice at Ford School of Public Policy. Luftig spoke on the 2004 Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act and the role of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, followed by a brief Q&A.
Luftig said the purpose of ODNI at its conception after 9/11 was to better integrate the work of U.S. intelligence agencies for use by Congress.
“The interesting thing about ODNI is it really is the only part of the community where all roads lead and are combined into one,” Luftig said. “And so even though ODNI is charged by both the statute as well as congressional expectations to be a headquarters element where we are needed and integrated with the community, when Congress sees problems and wants to create a new office or create a new initiative, they are focused on ‘Well, let’s give that to ODNI.’”
In an interview with The Michigan Daily after the event, Luftig said he envisions the intelligence community finding more efficient methods to address changing threats to national security in the future.
“I think it relates to how we address an expanding set of national security challenges, moving from traditional to nontraditional challenges,” Luftig said. “And to do that we need to pivot away from some of the traditional ways that we’ve done intelligence.”
Luftig said he feels the most rewarding part of working in the intelligence community is contributing to improving the world in small but impactful ways.
“It’s about being able to make the world just a little bit better, a little bit safer, and in very small ways, but in a way that I wouldn’t otherwise have the opportunity to do.” Luftig said. “You have a set of people who have come to a community because they believe in something bigger than themselves and that they want to make a slightly better, more just world and you’ve come together to do that. And I just think being a part of that is the most rewarding thing.”
LSA junior Eli Pollak, who attended the event, said it taught him about the wide scope of the intelligence community’s responsibilities, and he is now interested to see how they will address current global issues.
“I would say that my biggest takeaway is the diverse array of responsibilities and tasks (the intelligence community) has to juggle at any given moment in time,” Pollak said. “Their ability to integrate and take in information from all sources while maintaining a focus on so many different subjects at once is really impressive, and I’m curious to see how that continues as more and more issues become prevalent in our current world.”
Public Policy senior Maxwell Katz, who attended the event, said he found it interesting to transition from learning about the intelligence community in a classroom setting to hearing from someone working in the field.
“A lot of what we do in our courses is thinking critically and that ends up being criticizing the way that the current intelligence community is set up,” Katz said. “But I think seeing someone who’s inside of it makes you remember how difficult the work that people are doing is and how many fail-safes there are.”
Daily Staff Reporter Edra Timmerman can be reached at edrakmt@umich.edu.