On November 25, 2024, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines delivered a speech at the NATO Parliamentary Assembly Annual Session Award Ceremony. Her remarks as delivered are below.

Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines

Remarks As Delivered

NATO Parliamentary Assembly Annual Session Award Ceremony

Montreal, Canada

November 25, 2024

Thank you so much for that kind and far too generous introduction, Chairman Turner, and for your unwavering support of the U.S. Intelligence Community, as chair of our oversight committee in the House. Also, my profound thanks to Representative Connolly, who I know can’t be here today, the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, all of you, Irene Fellin – our true champion in advancing women in peace and security – and my wonderful friends and colleagues throughout NATO, for this incredible honor.

I am, to be honest, a bit in awe, and also apparently too short, a bit in awe of the fact that I am receiving the same recognition as the remarkable and courageous women who have received this award in the past, each of whom have advanced the role of women in global peace and security in their own transformative and inspiring way.

And, yet in this case, I realize that it is not really my work that is being recognized, but rather that of the Intelligence Community I have the great privilege to lead and so I am here today on behalf of the thousands of deeply committed professionals, many of whom are women, who work tirelessly across our NATO intelligence services to keep us safe. Intelligence professionals who have consistently inspired me over the years as they have given to public service from their lives and talents every measure of dedication and commitment. And they have my deepest respect as well as my gratitude for their efforts.

In fact, I recently returned from the annual meeting of both civilian and military intelligence services at NATO, which I had the honor of chairing this year on the civilian side. It was a great reminder of the extraordinary work that we do together to serve the alliance and of the value we derive from our collaboration across NATO. It is a truly diverse community and one with a great many perspectives, which is only benefitted our work as we try to understand and reflect on the world around us.

We look to bring rigor, expertise, and evidence to bear on our analysis, and, yet, the classified nature of so much of what we do makes us susceptible to insular thinking and cognitive biases and, as such, our interactions with other services, as well as those outside of the intelligence world, those who test our hypotheses and better inform our work are crucially important.

And this is I think very much in line with your work here at the NATO Parliamentary Assembly’s longstanding commitment to the Women, Peace, and Security agenda, which has meant a great deal to many of us, both men and women, in national security. Your efforts to ensure that we are incorporating gender perspectives into our work pushes us to think and work differently and, ultimately, improves our capacity to, in fact, pursue peace and security.

As your agenda and work reflects, it is critical to recognize the role of gender in the full range of national security concerns, from foreign demographics, societal dynamics, politics, governance and diplomacy, to economics and warfare. And understanding such dynamics allows us to better protect and advance our national security interests in an increasingly complex geopolitical landscape.

Furthermore, understanding the degree to which gender bias may be reflected in our own intelligence work is critical to countering such bias and your efforts help us to do so while also pushing us to think through new challenges and opportunities related to gender in our world that might otherwise be overlooked. And I have seen firsthand how the inclusion of women and other diverse voices and viewpoints enriches our analysis with the critical nuance that helps us identify threats and vulnerabilities faster and with greater accuracy. And, moreover, I would not be here today, a participant in your work, without such efforts, so I thank you.

One of the key lessons the Intelligence Community learned from the horrific events that befell our country on September 11th is that we can never again ignore the undeniable strategic advantage that comes from our ability to draw on diverse perspectives, insights, and approaches to problem-solving directly from our own workforce.

By bringing together diverse nations with a shared commitment to peace and stability, NATO has for decades safeguarded its member states, and fostered partners around the world, all dedicated to upholding democratic values and protecting freedom. NATO has demonstrated the extraordinary importance of partnership and information-sharing to the pursuit of peace and stability, at a time when it is increasingly challenging to do so.

And today, we face a fragile global order strained by accelerating strategic competition among major powers, more intense and unpredictable transnational challenges and multiple regional conflicts with far-reaching implications. This is also a moment in which we are struggling to counter democratic backsliding and seeking to bolster democratic governance at home and abroad, as it remains the best way to realize lasting peace, prosperity, and human dignity.

NATO’s role, and I would argue the role of intelligence, has never been more important than it is today. And, for that reason too, I am especially honored to receive this award on behalf of the U.S. Intelligence Community. I see it as recognition of the important role our intelligence services can play in not only security, but in maintaining and building and sustaining peace and in countering authoritarianism. Intelligence services can provide warning of aggression, allowing our countries’ leaders to engage and deter, defend and respond as appropriate, as we did in the context of Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine.

Intelligence services can monitor confidence-building measures and peace agreements to promote trust and accountability while creating space for de-escalation and ultimately peace as we recently sought to do with Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. And intelligence services can help promote greater understanding of moves that otherwise appear hostile to avoid mistaken or unintended escalation. We can also highlight trends and drivers of conflict that might be addressed, such as environmental factors, that will predictably lead to tensions that increase the risk of conflict. And intelligence can contribute to the promotion of norms that help protect against the primary tools of authoritarianism, including misinformation and disinformation. In the last few years, our efforts were perhaps never so apparent as in the context of Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine as was mentioned by Chairman Turner.

In November 2021, I can still recall first briefing the North Atlantic Council regarding our intelligence, which then indicated that Russia was preparing for the possibility of a large-scale military action in Ukraine. We did not think that Putin had yet made a decision, and there was naturally quite a bit of skepticism that he would do this, but we were seeing things that troubled us and this led to our efforts to talk to allies at the direction of our President.

Over the coming months, with the backing of NATO and with the help of many of our partner services within NATO, we embarked on an unprecedented effort across our Intelligence Community to synthesize intelligence regarding Russia’s intentions at the Ukrainian border, to declassify it, and to make it public. And when we made the decision to reveal to the public that roughly 150,000 Russian troops had gathered along Ukraine’s border and that Putin planned a false flag operation against the sovereign nation, it was done with the objective of deterring Putin from invading and preserving the peace.

We wanted to support our leaders’ efforts to convince Putin that his aggression would not be worth the cost and make it clear the world was watching. We also wanted to counter Russia’s disinformation efforts to produce a pretext for their invasion, and as this all unfolded, what was perhaps most successful thanks to many of you was our ability to demonstrate that NATO allies and their partners were standing shoulder to shoulder in opposition to his aggression. This unified effort was not only a first in terms of scale, but also in speed, and it required every ounce of collaboration, coordination, and trust we had built with our NATO allies to get the message out in time.

And obviously, in the end, we didn’t prevent the war, but we vastly complicated Moscow’s plans and had made it harder for the Kremlin to deflect culpability with lies. We also provided a basis for allied planning in response, and, since that time, NATO has continued to play an invaluable and absolutely critical role in supporting Ukraine against Russia’s brutality. And throughout we have provided analysis on the widespread global implications of the war, including with respect to food security, climate, and health and have established specific efforts supported by our congress to provide analysis on atrocities and war crimes, which includes conflict-related sexual violence. In short, as is true across almost every aspect of our work, gender perspectives are relevant and important.

Moreover, in all that I do, I am intensely aware that using my voice is not a privilege that all women in the world enjoy. The reality, of course, is that even as some countries make progress, there are areas of the world where the rights of women have been newly diminished, where women have been deprived, for example, of even the most basic human instinct to use their own voices to communicate with other women. And, yet, because of efforts like yours, it is no longer controversial to say, at least in this room, that the involvement of women in peace processes leads to more comprehensive negotiations, lasting agreements, and effective humanitarian responses, but we still have a ways to go in making this a reality.

The world will be more peaceful, safe, and prosperous only when women can fully participate in all facets of economic, social, and political life—and their human rights are respected. Only by ensuring that women are represented, supported, safe, and empowered will all NATO strengthen its capacity and show that we are serious in our collective efforts to achieve lasting peace and stability throughout the world.

The US has championed the Women, Peace, and Security or WPS agenda for decades and we signed it into law with the 2017 WPS Act. But while we often lead on the global stage in shaping fora, guiding security alliances, and responding to crises, it is worth noting that we continue to fall short in the number of women participating in our own national security.

Our challenges are both structural and cultural and in particular without new policies and systemic changes to accommodate working families, US women will continue to face barriers that limit their participation and advancement in the national security field.

We could learn a lot from our Nordic and European NATO partners – like Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, and the Netherlands – which consistently rank in the top five of the best countries in the world for women. These nations have prioritized policies that support caregivers, offer paid family leave, close the pay gap, and increase workplace flexibility, creating environments where women do not have to sacrifice family for career.

And as I prepare for what’s next in my own career and life, I find myself reflecting on the hope that most probably have whenever they move on – that they will leave their institution, their mission, and the world better than they found it. If being the first woman to lead the US Intelligence Community sheds more light on the vast positive impact our intelligence professionals make on the safety and security of the American people, and on peace and security around the world, then I will feel I accomplished at least part of what I set out to do.

Former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright once said, “There is this assumption some have when sitting with the only woman in a group of men that women don’t know how to lead.” Dr. Albright proved that assumption wrong time and time again and I hope that I've been able to answer the question of whether a woman can lead the Intelligence Community with the same resounding yes.

But in an ever-changing world, I know there are few guarantees. Our challenges evolve, new threats emerge, and the sands of global security shift rapidly. I hope the progress we made, the barriers we broke, and the commitments we upheld will endure, and that those who remain and those who follow will have the strength and vision to build a world where diverse perspectives lead to even stronger alliances, lasting peace, and a more stable and equitable world.

And finally, to the many incredible women who, today, are on the front lines of national security and in critical roles within NATO and across our allied nations, your courage and dedication often go unseen, but your contributions are felt by all of us. We see you, and we owe you our deepest gratitude and our strongest support.

Thank you all once again for this extraordinary honor and for all that you do to promote our collective peace and security, our democratic values, our freedom, and our equality. Thank you very, very much.

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