CIA stands for Central Intelligence Agency, which provides objective intelligence on foreign countries and global issues to the president and policymakers. Learn more about CIA 's mission, organization, leadership, and careers. The full form of CIA is Central Intelligence Agency . It is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, tasked with gathering, processing, and analyzing national security information from around the world, primarily through the use of human intelligence (HUMINT). What is the CIA and what does it do? The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), commonly referred to as the Agency, is a civilian foreign intelligence organisation of the United States government. The CIA is headquartered at the George Bush Center for Intelligence in Langley, Virginia. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA / ˌsiː.aɪˈeɪ /) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and conducting covert operations.