https://archive.org/details/characterinsightep348
The Tal Shiar is a Romulan intelligence agency, a sort of secret police force as understood by the Federation. Like the Federation's Section 31 or the Cardassian Obsidian Order, this largely covert group works to ensure loyalty to the Romulan Star Empire while also pushing agendas in foreign lands as opportunities arise. It has been posited in Star Trek Picard that this organization is a front for a much older Romulan cabal, but as that is still speculative and in spoiler territory, we'll leave that to our imagination for now.
The Tal Shiar was introduced as a concept in TNG, most notably when an underground movement has Deanna Troi go in Romulan disguise and pose as a well-known Tal Shiar leader to help some Romulan defectors escape to the Federation. We also learn that the Romulan military and the Tal Shiar distrusted each other, leading to competition and deception even between their respective fleets of warbirds.
The Tal Shiar take a much more important central role in the Dominion War storyline on Deep Space 9. The Tal Shiar worked with the Obsidian Order to try and carry out a preemptive strike on the Founders homeworld before the war began in earnest, but the Founders had infiltrated the Tal Shiar already and that led to the ambush and massacre of their combined forces in the Battle of the Omarion Nebula. This ended the Obsidian Order, but the Tal Shiar rose from the ashes and rebuilt itself.
We then see the new leader of the Tal Shiar Koval as he works with the Romulan Continuing Committee as well as with Section 31 as a Federation collaborator. You can truly never trust the Tal Shiar, as evidenced by how much they secretly collaborate with other covert operatives and organizations. But they are always there in the background, ready to be an integral part of any story involving high level issues with Romulans and their Star Empire.
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