The Honorable Tulsi Gabbard, serving as Director of National Intelligence, delivered a compelling keynote at the GEOINT 2025 Symposium hosted by the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF), calling for unity, innovation, and renewed purpose across the intelligence community (IC). With the backdrop of shifting global threats and transformative technology, her message was both patriotic and pragmatic: geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) is indispensable to national security—and its future will depend on how well we adapt, integrate, and lead.
Geospatial Intelligence: A Legacy That Must Evolve
Gabbard began by anchoring GEOINT’s importance in America’s military tradition, reminding attendees that while war has always required leaders, it has also required the engineers, surveyors, and cartographers who made success possible. From George Washington’s time to today’s modern battlefields, geospatial awareness remains a cornerstone of military readiness and policy precision.
“Too often, GEOINT’s value is invisible to those who rely on it most,” Gabbard said. “But its purpose—to inform and protect the American people—hasn’t changed.”
Now, the challenge isn’t just gathering data. It’s delivering accurate, real-time intelligence to policymakers at “operational speed.” That shift—from slow and siloed to fast and integrated—is non-negotiable in today’s environment.
America First, Not Alone
Quoting John Quincy Adams, Gabbard emphasized that America does not go “abroad in search of monsters to destroy.” That philosophy, she noted, remains central to a defense posture focused on deterrence and readiness—not aggression.
Gabbard credited the Intelligence Community for supporting this approach by “matching observation to reality.” In her words, “We don’t collect intelligence for the sake of intelligence. We do it so that decisions made at the highest levels are relevant, timely, and useful.”
She also acknowledged that being in the intelligence world has made her a target of vocal critics—but she welcomes that scrutiny. “Many in Congress share the same frustrations,” she said. “They want objectivity, speed, and relevance. That’s what GEOINT can deliver—if we let it.”
Two Priorities: Commercial Innovation and Competitive Edge
The heart of her address centered on two imperatives for GEOINT’s future.
1. Embrace commercial sector innovation.
Gabbard was clear: “If a problem’s already been solved in the private sector, we shouldn’t be solving it again with government dollars.” She pointed to artificial intelligence (AI) as the game-changing opportunity for all intel domains—GEOINT, HUMINT, SIGINT, and OSINT.
“It’s time to reimagine our roles,” she said. “We can’t treat AI as a buzzword. We have to deploy it to do more with less.”
2. Maintain our qualitative edge.
She stressed that intelligence isn’t about winning wars—it’s about preventing them. That, she argued, is why the U.S. must keep asking: “Why are we doing it this way?” Legacy processes and procurement systems “don’t cut it anymore.”
In her words, “The answer to how we maintain our edge is what fulfills our mission: defending the American people.”
GEOINT and Trust in a Fractured World
One of the most powerful moments came when Gabbard addressed the role of geospatial intelligence in rebuilding public trust. “You can’t dispute the landscape,” she said. “It either shows us the truth, or it doesn’t.”
She called for better integration of open-source intelligence (OSINT), which remains underleveraged in many agencies. “We limit ourselves when we don’t include OSINT as a core capability,” she said, advocating for streamlining contracting across the IC and unifying how GEOINT, OSINT, HUMINT, and SIGINT work together.
Fix the Procurement Problem
Gabbard didn’t hold back on her views of the current federal acquisition system: “Our archaic procurement laws are holding us back,” she said, explaining how they favor legacy primes and limit innovation.
She shared that Deputy Secretary of Defense is currently working on reforming the contracting process to reduce redundancy and allow for a single-source HR contract across the IC. “We often have the wrong players at the table—not because they’re not talented, but because they’re the only ones who could get through the door,” she said.
The goal? Create space for new entrants—especially small businesses—and break out of the mindset that “this is how we’ve always done it.”
Partnerships and People
Partnerships—both international and domestic—were another key theme. “If we try to do anything alone, we will fail,” Gabbard said. Intelligence-sharing agreements remain “force multipliers,” especially at a time when too few young people are entering the cleared workforce.
She also highlighted the administration’s commitment to the “Golden Dome” initiative—an effort that brings the IC and DoD together to fund and develop next-generation capabilities. Early R&D investment is already underway.
A Culture That Listens
In a fireside chat with USGIF’s Rhonda Tomlinson, Gabbard revealed that one of her biggest surprises as DNI has been the openness of the workforce.
“When I asked for feedback, I got it—immediately,” she said. “It’s been so refreshing to know that people are ready to raise their hands and say what’s not working.”
It’s a sign, she said, that the IC is ready to evolve—ready to take risks, adopt commercial innovation, and never forget who we serve: the American people.
