FBI director guides the agency in confronting complex international threats, investigating federal crimes and running 55 field offices

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Javed Ali, University of Michigan

(THE CONVERSATION) Mention the FBI, and many older Americans will likely think of a time when the agency was run by J. Edgar Hoover, who spent much of his nearly half-century tenure at the agency harassing political dissidents and abusing his power. But as former FBI counterterrorism expert Javed Ali explains, the role of both the FBI and its leader have dramatically shifted over time. The Conversation’s politics editor Naomi Schalit asked Ali, who now teaches courses in national security and intelligence at the University of Michigan, to explain just what a modern FBI director does as President-elect Donald Trump aims to name his own director to replace current FBI head Christopher Wray, whom Trump appointed in 2017. Wray has said he will resign in January 2025.

Let’s start with FBI 101. What does the agency do?

The FBI began as the country’s lead federal criminal investigative agency in 1909, then named the Bureau of Investigation, or BOI. Previously, organizations like the Secret Service and the U.S. Marshall’s Service had responsibility for investigating federal crimes, but the...