Intelligence Community Directive 203: Analytic Standards

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   ICD 203 asks five things of every analytic product — objectivity, independence from politics, timeliness, all sources and tradecraft — and independence protects the other four.

   Intelligence Community Directive 203: Analytic Standards · 2015

   An assessment can be accurate in every sentence and still false if it was tailored to a policy.

   Directive 203 of the US Intelligence Community sets five standards for every analytic product: it must be objective, independent of political consideration, timely, based on all available sources, and must implement the nine analytic tradecraft standards. The text published by ODNI is the one signed on 2 January 2015, with a 2022 technical amendment that mainly concerns the role of the analytic ombuds, not the standards themselves. Objectivity means more than lack of bias: analysts must be aware of their own assumptions, use techniques that reveal bias, consider contrary information, and not stay tied to earlier judgements once the facts have changed. In practice it works as a pre-publication checklist: have we weighed alternative perspectives? Will the assessment reach the decision-maker before the decision? Have we used sources we would rather ignore? Have we said how sure we are, and why? The standards fit anywhere an assessment is written for someone who decides — a ministry, a bank or a newsroom. The typical trap is not lying but tailoring: an assessment written to please an audience, an agenda or a policy. That is why the text forbids both verbs — neither distorted by advocacy nor shaped for it.

   “Analytic assessments must not be distorted by, nor shaped for, advocacy of a particular audience, agenda, or policy viewpoint. Analytic judgments must not be influenced by the force of preference for a particular policy.”

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