Michael V. Hayden Center for Intelligence Policy and International Security

Michael V. Hayden Center for Intelligence Policy and International Security

Michael V. Hayden Inducted as Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration

Andrew J Schappert — Mon, 17 Nov 2025 17:39:55 +0000

Michael V. Hayden Inducted as Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration Andrew J Schappert Mon, 11/17/2025 - 12:39

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�鶹��Ƶ’s Schar School of Policy and Government proudly congratulates General (Ret.) Michael V. Hayden on his induction as a 2025 Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA). This prestigious honor recognizes outstanding contributions to the advancement of public service, and Hayden’s selection underscores his lifelong commitment to leadership, integrity, and national security.

Michael V. Hayden: ‘I’m grateful for the privilege of being named a Fellow. I look forward to contributing to the Academy’s important work.‘ Photo Creative Services/�鶹��Ƶ

A Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Schar School, Hayden is the founder and namesake of the Michael V. Hayden Center for Intelligence, Policy, and International Security where he continues to shape the next generation of public servants through his teaching, mentorship, and informative live events.

Hayden joins other Schar School faculty members as NAPA Academy Fellows, including University Professors Emeritus Kingsley Haynes, Timothy J. Conlan, and James Pfiffner; Professor Alan Abramson and Associate Professor Alan R. Shark; and Visiting Professor of Public Policy David Brunori.

“I’ve spent my professional life in organizations where mission, service, and integrity matter deeply—the U.S. Intelligence Community and the United States Air Force,” Hayden said. “The National Academy of Public Administration embodies those same values, and I’m grateful for the privilege of being named a Fellow. I look forward to contributing to the Academy’s important work.”

Hayden brings to George �鶹��Ƶ an extraordinary record of leadership and public service spanning more than four decades at the highest levels of government. A retired four-star Air Force general, he is the only person ever to have led both the CIA and the National Security Agency, overseeing some of the most complex intelligence and national security operations in U.S. history.

His career has been defined by a steadfast commitment to protecting the nation while advancing transparency, accountability, and professionalism within the intelligence community. At the Schar School, he continues to share that experience and perspective with students, faculty, and policymakers, enriching the university’s role as a leader in public policy and national security education.

“Congratulations to our founder General Michael V. Hayden on his induction as a NAPA fellow,” said Hayden Center Executive Director Larry Pfeiffer. “NAPA has recognized something we here have known for years—that General Hayden is one of our nation’s most respected leaders and insightful minds, and a voice for pragmatic, practical solutions to our most vexing challenges. Our country will benefit from his participation in this program.”

Election to NAPA is one of the highest professional honors in the field of public administration, recognizing leaders who have made significant and sustained contributions to the effectiveness of government. Hayden joins a distinguished class of new Fellows whose expertise and service exemplify the academy’s mission to build a more effective, accountable, and transparent government.

Founded in 1967 and chartered by Congress, the National Academy of Public Administration is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to improving the effectiveness, efficiency, and accountability of government. NAPA brings together top public administration professionals—scholars, practitioners, and leaders—to tackle the nation’s most pressing management and policy challenges and to strengthen the institutions of American governance.

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From the Situation Room to Netflix: Schar School’s Larry Pfeiffer Goes Hollywood

Andrew J Schappert — Mon, 20 Oct 2025 14:21:06 +0000

From the Situation Room to Netflix: Schar School’s Larry Pfeiffer Goes Hollywood Andrew J Schappert Mon, 10/20/2025 - 10:21

If the acting and dialogue in the White House Situation Room during the new Netflix movie A House of Dynamite seem authentic, you can thank the Schar School of Policy and Government. Specifically, Larry Pfeiffer, executive director of the Schar School’s Michael V. Hayden Center for Intelligence, Policy, and International Security at �鶹��Ƶ.

Jason Clarke, left, and Rebecca Ferguson were counseled by Larry Pfeiffer on how the White House Situation Room operates during a crisis.

In another life, for two years, Pfeiffer actually was the senior director of President Obama’s “SitRoom.”

Pfeiffer, the former chief of staff of the CIA and who also worked at the NSA, knows how to keep a secret. He told no one at George �鶹��Ƶ about his role in director Kathyrn Bigelow’s (The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty) latest thriller for more than a year until Rebecca Ferguson, the Swedish actor from the Mission: Impossible and Dune franchises, began singing Pfeiffer’s praises in global media.

“They hooked me up with Larry Pfeiffer,” she told the Times of London—and Vanity Fair, and IndieWire, and Tudum, the Netflix magazine—as well as in several promotional panel discussions. “He was the man. He’s basically the guy who Jason Clarke plays [in the film]. He’d been that guy, and he was on set every day.”

Rebecca Ferguson in a scene from A House of Dynamite: Larry Pfeiffer ‘was the man. … He had been that guy, and he was on set every day.’ Photos courtesy Netflix.

Ferguson plays Captain Olivia Walker, Situation Room senior duty officer. Clarke is Admiral Mark Miller, the senior director of the “SitRoom,” reporting to the president, played by Idris Elba. The real-time drama arises when a nuke of “indeterminate origin” makes its way through the skies toward Chicago, giving those in charge of saving the world a mere 19 minutes to respond.

After the producers reached out to Pfeiffer on the recommendation of another consultant, “we did a Zoom call during which I asked if they’d ever visited the real Situation Room,” Pfeiffer said. “When they said they hadn’t, I suggested I could ask the then-incumbent senior director if a tour could be arranged. After a couple weeks of deliberation, they invited us in.”

This entre into a remarkably secure national security facility heightened the film’s realism when it came time to build the set. “The production crew did an amazing job recreating the Situation Room, but also the hallways leading to it, the Oval Office, the press briefing room—even the Navy Mess where we would line up to get our meals,” Pfeiffer said.

In fact, “the ‘SitRoom’ felt so real that one time during production, I felt my phone vibrating in my pocket and for a moment I felt pangs of guilt as if I had brought my phone into a secure facility”—a major violation of security protocol.

As for Ferguson and the other actors, director Bigelow “gave me wide latitude to help them shape their characters and their actions,” he said. “I also offered suggestions to the script. Her remit to me was to help her make it as real as possible.”

Larry Pfeiffer
Photo by Office of University Branding

Feguson’s main takeaway seems to be a comment she’s repeated several times: Pfeiffer told her, “You never lose your [euphemism for cool] in the Situation Room,” she has said. That led to at least one scene being added when Ferguson, as Walker, feels compelled to do just that—walk out of the scene. Bigelow understood the motivation and did the scene again, this time with a camera following Walker out as she loses her cool and works to regain her composure.

“Rebecca Ferguson was a delight to work with,” Pfeiffer said. “She was down to earth and very friendly, eager to learn as quickly as possible what the role of a senior duty officer was, how they would walk and talk, what actions would they be doing at their desk, on their computer, with their phone and headset, how they related to other members of the ‘SitRoom’ team and to the high-level officials she would be dealing with, like the president.”

She also probed him on “what would be their motivation, what made them want to do a job like this? During breaks between filming, she didn’t shuttle off to a trailer or dressing room, she wanted to sit over a meal or a snack and pick my brain,” he said.

Pfeiffer has seen a rough cut of the film in July and attended a private screening earlier this month—the movie is in theaters now; it premieres on Netflix October 24—and said “it’s very good, the suspense kept me on the edge of my seat—and I had read the script and participated in the filming.

“I was especially happy at how Kathryn [Bigelow] captured the dedication, professionalism, and patriotism of the men and women of the Situation Room and the military, even under the worst of circumstances.”

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Intelligence Q&A: The Audience Had Questions, Hayden Center Professors Had Answers

Andrew J Schappert — Mon, 13 Feb 2023 19:13:06 +0000

Intelligence Q&A: The Audience Had Questions, Hayden Center Professors Had Answers Andrew J Schappert Mon, 02/13/2023 - 14:13

Earlier this month, several Schar School of Policy and Government professors working in the Michael V. Hayden Center for Intelligence, Policy, and International Security took the stage at �鶹��Ƶ’s Van Metre Hall for a first-of-its-kind event: The entire program was devoted to questions from the audience. Some 165 audience members attended live, with another 300 watching via YouTube stream. (Distinguished Visiting Professor and former acting and deputy director of the CIA Michael Morell, who had been called away at the last minute, lost his internet connection early in the program.)

A Voice of America reporter interviews Michael V. Hayden ahead of the panel Q&A. Photos by John Hollis/Office of University Branding

Voice of America records Andrew McCabe before the Hayden Center’s forum.

The program was lively, informative, provocative, and, overall, a success. In less than two hours, the speakers covered countless compelling and timely topics as the audience led the direction of the conversation. What follows is a brief recap. You can see the replay here.

The first question was directed to the center’s founder and namesake, Michael V. Hayden, who was making his first on-stage appearance since suffering a stroke in 2018: “What is keeping you up at night these days?” His answer was succinct: “China, China, China.” Expressing his concerns about national security, he emphasized that the U.S. intelligence agencies need more information to accurately surmise China’s global intentions.

It has been a year since the Russian invasion of Ukraine started; an audience member wondered what the future holds for that beleaguered country and the international support it desperately needs. While talking about the role of the U.S. in defending Ukraine’s independence, Hayden said “we are good but we can do better…we should do more, not eventually but now.” He also predicted this spring to be hard for the country but reassured that Ukraine will eventually win.

A Schar School Democracy Lab Learning Community student expressed his concerns about the rampant theft of technology from U.S. sources and asked about the steps the country is taking to prevent it from happening. While it’s well-known that the cybersecurity industry has been growing steadily in the last few years and specialists are making significant advances, Visiting Professor and former CIA officer David Priess replied that “innovative government and innovative private sector is not enough. We need to cooperate with international partners.” To which Hayden Center Director and former CIA Chief of Staff Larry Pfeiffer encouraged students to explore technology “and don’t be afraid of it.”

Global tension abounds, particularly in China-Taiwan relations. In answering a question about that delicate hot spot, the intelligence experts on stage agreed that after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the probability of the escalation in China and Taiwan is much lower than it was a year ago. The sentiment delivered was that the U.S. should be in no rush to interfere in a meaningful manner.

Another Democracy Lab student wondered how U.S. intelligence is countering advances in foreign surveillance technology. Distinguished Visiting Professor Andrew McCabe, former acting director of the FBI, replied that the issue, “a slow-burning and considerable threat, hasn’t received the attention it deserves over the last 10 years or so. We’re very vulnerable to the tyranny of the urgent, so we run to the latest diplomatic kerfuffle.”

In short, government intelligence agencies, he suggested, struggle to advance in the way that private sector does and communication between public and private entities needs to be refined.

Of course, there was a Chinese spy balloon question. Surprisingly, the general opinion among these former intelligence leaders was that the entire situation was not that big of a deal and that the news media exaggerated it.

Hayden, for one, said “in this situation, [President Biden] did what he was supposed to do,” in shooting down the balloon and showing his support for the decisions made by those serving in his government.

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Just a Typical Tuesday: 8 Speakers, 3 Events

Melanie Balog — Wed, 21 Sep 2022 19:56:33 +0000

Just a Typical Tuesday: 8 Speakers, 3 Events Melanie Balog Wed, 09/21/2022 - 15:56

The day began with a morning talk with a U.S. senator discussing details of the upcoming midterm elections and ended in the evening with a top executive of the world’s second-largest retail company explaining the intricacies of his job. In between, a panel including two former White House appointees tackled the thorny topic of the handling of classified information. Just a typical day at the Schar School.

Cassidy (l) and Pearlstein. Photo provided

U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy (R-La.) was the guest for Robinson Professor of Public Affairs Steven Pearlstein’s “First Tuesday” series, which took place at 9 a.m. at Fenwick Library’s Main Reading Room in Fairfax. Cassidy joined Pearlstein and students—many of them Schar School Democracy Lab Learning Community participants—for a discussion regarding November’s bellwether congressional elections; he also described his experience as a medical doctor serving the uninsured and detailed what led him to run for public office. The next “First Tuesday” guest is GOP media strategist (and �鶹��Ƶ grad) Danny Diaz on Tuesday, September 27, also at 9 a.m. The speaker series is open to all. The complete schedule is here.

From left, Michael Morell, Mary DeRosa, John Fitzpatrick, and Larry Pfeiffer discuss what Top Secret means. Photo by Buzz McClain/Schar School of Policy and Government

Why does information become classified, and what does that mean? And what are the ramifications if classified material isn’t secured and falls into the wrong hands? Who better to answer those questions than Schar School Distinguished Visiting Professor Michael Morell, former acting director and deputy director of the CIA, and Larry Pfeiffer, director of the Michael V. Hayden Center for Intelligence, Policy, and International Security and former senior director of the White House Situation Room. They were joined at 7 p.m. in the Hayden Center’s first live event in two years—called “Keeping Secrets”—by former National Security Legal Adviser Mary DeRosa and chief security officer for Ball Aerospace and former White House senior director for records access and information security management John Fitzpatrick. Morell moderated the conversation which drew some 75 attendees to the auditorium at Van Metre Hall at �鶹��Ƶ Square and 95 watching via livestream. Another 355 have watched it at the Hayden Center’s YouTube channel this week.

Schar School assistant professor Ally Coll, right, with Amazon general counsel David Zapolsky. Photo by Buzz McClain/Schar School of Policy and Government

At 7:30 p.m. undergraduates from the Schar School’s new Jurisprudence Learning Community, �鶹��Ƶ’s Patriot Pre-Law program, and the Scalia Law School Business Law Society hosted senior vice president and general counsel of Amazon David Zapolsky at Hazel Hall at �鶹��Ƶ Square. Schar School assistant professor of legal studies Ally Coll moderated a conversation in which Zapolsky described how it is to manage a team of thousands of in-house lawyers and how he goes about addressing complex legal issues while conducting international commerce.
He also reflected on his own career path and gave advice to students about how to pursue their passions and find legal jobs that they will find both challenging and rewarding. His advice? Always be open to questioning the status quo, and don't assume something has to be done the way it's always been done in the past.

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Former U.S. intelligence ‘Cold Warriors’ give insights on Russia’s war in Ukraine

ckearney — Thu, 17 Mar 2022 15:27:03 +0000

Former U.S. intelligence ‘Cold Warriors’ give insights on Russia’s war in Ukraine ckearney Thu, 03/17/2022 - 11:27

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America’s overwhelming focus on terrorism following 9/11 gave Vladimir Putin the impression that its leaders weren’t really paying attention, and that he could act with impunity without fear of paying a price.

The “bad, bad miscalculation” by the Russian president likely emboldened him to recently invade Ukraine and has drawn the world closer to World War III than at any time since the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.

“He really interpreted that as weakness on the part of the United States,” Leon Panetta, who served as director of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from 2009 to 2011, said of Putin. “That’s why he went into Georgia, that’s why he went into Crimea, that’s why he went into Syria, that’s why he went into Libya, and that’s why he did the cyber attack against the United States. Deep down, he did not think that we would respond and that he would pay a price. I think a lot of that contributed to what he’s doing now in Ukraine.”

Panetta’s insights were among the many enlightening takes to come from “The Directors' View: Russia & Ukraine,” Wednesday evening’s virtual program hosted by the Michael V. Hayden Center for Intelligence, Policy and National Security within the Schar School of Policy and Government at �鶹��Ƶ. More than 1,300 people from across the United States and overseas tuned in as former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper joined former leaders of the CIA including Panetta, John Brennan, Michael Morell and Gen. Michael V. Hayden (USAF, Ret.), the founder of the Hayden Center and former head of the CIA and National Security Agency, in closely examining the conflict in Ukraine and the challenges it poses to the entire world.

Larry Pfeiffer, the director of the Hayden Center who previously served as CIA chief of staff and the director of the White House Situation Room, served as the moderator for the star-studded panel.

Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, but has encountered far greater resistance than expected, while also dealing with numerous military setbacks and logistical problems.

Putin has defended the invasion as Russia’s natural response to further potential NATO expansion, but the panelists dismissed such a notion.

“Putin just couldn’t stand to have a fledgling, but improving democracy—capitalists and that sort of thing—right next door to Russia and visible to a lot of Russians,” Clapper said.

It’s unlikely, the panelists agreed, that Putin anticipated the galvanizing effect his decision would instead have on the NATO alliance, the strong U.S. response in terms of military aid to Ukraine and the immediate coalescing of the free world to create powerful sanctions that have begun throttling the Russian economy as punishment.

“We want to go together,” Hayden said.

Morell, the former acting director of the CIA and deputy director now serving as a Distinguished Visiting Professor within the Schar School, called Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine “the biggest strategic blunder a major power has made since Hitler invaded the Soviet Union during the Second World War.”

Clapper attributed the “lackluster performance of the vaunted Russian army” thus far to underestimates of Ukrainian military prowess, its reliance on conscripts and poor logistics that require trains to deliver needed supplies.

But the panelists worried what Putin might do when cornered. Russia has previously used chemical weapons against civilians, and Putin has threatened the use of tactical nuclear weapons.

“A cornered, humiliated individual is a very dangerous one,” Brennan said.

The region has quickly become a powder keg, requiring no more than one errant Russian missile or the bad judgement of a lone individual for the conflict to potentially expand into World War III.

“This is a very dangerous time,” Panetta said.

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Faculty experts reflect on Sept. 11

ckearney — Thu, 09 Sep 2021 18:00:30 +0000

Faculty experts reflect on Sept. 11 ckearney Thu, 09/09/2021 - 14:00

To mark the 20^th anniversary of Sept. 11, we reached out to our colleagues at the Michael V. Hayden Center for Intelligence, Policy, and International Security and the Schar School of Policy and Government for their remembrances. Many of them have worked in the intelligence and policy communities and each has a unique perspective on a day that changed our world.

Larry Pfeiffer

Director, The Michael V. Hayden Center for Intelligence, Policy and International Security

I remember driving down MD Route 32 on my way to work at the National Security Agency—it was a beautiful clear sunny day—when I heard the reporters on the radio talking about a plane hitting one of the World Trade Center towers. Odd, I thought. Moments later, they reported the second tower had been hit. With that, I knew the United States was under attack. I rushed to the office, where I helped manage the NSA’s relationships with foreign intelligence services. My chore that day was to get a message to all of our foreign partners that we were under attack and needed their help. At some point we sent everyone home, fearing an attack on our headquarters in Maryland. As I was completing the message to our partners, by myself in the office, a security guard came in waving her service revolver around asking why I was still there. I asked her to put the gun down and give me a few more minutes to finish what I was doing. The mission of the U.S. intelligence community changed dramatically on that day as we retooled to fight a global war on terrorism. I had the privilege of working alongside some incredible men and women through the rest of my career, doing what I could to avoid a repeat of 9/11 and to keep America safe.

Ronald Marks III

Former CIA case officer

Visiting term professor, Schar School of Policy and Government

On 9/11, I was about to leave home for a meeting at Army Intelligence when I saw on television the second plane hit the World Trade Center. Immediately, I called my wife who worked at CIA. I could not reach her. After a very long hour, she arrived home shaken, but safe. I hugged her for a long time. 9/11 destroyed the pretense any nation state had impermeable borders and boundaries in the 21st century. And that America, a 20^th-century nation, must quickly adjust to the new realities.

Ellen Beth Laipson

Director, Center for Security Policy Studies

The attacks of Sept. 11 transformed the national security priorities of the United States in fundamental ways. Defining terrorism as the greatest threat to our security led to many structural and legal changes. In hindsight, many of those actions appear to be an overreaction, or steps where the costs outweighed the benefits. Those costs are not just financial. They are human, in the war zones, and social, in the delicate balance in our system between basic rights and civil liberties and government's requirements to prevent terrorist attacks. This 9/11 anniversary is a sober one as we try to assess the long-term impact of our engagement in Afghanistan, and the residual threat that al-Qaeda may still pose to Americans at home and abroad.

The 9/11 Memorial and Museum in New York City. Photo by Getty Images

Edward Rhodes

Professor, Government and International Affairs

I was blithely at home writing a lecture about American foreign policy when my sister-in-law emailed me. I turned on the television just in time to watch the first World Trade Center tower collapse, and then the second tower. l don’t remember how long after that it was before the screen shots came in from Arlington, showing a gaping void in the part of the E-ring of the Pentagon, where I had once worked. The next day, from my fifth-floor office windows, 30 miles from Manhattan, I watched the plume of smoke still rising from the spot on the horizon where I used to see the tops of the towers. All of these are unforgettable images, burned in my brain. But it’s this last image, of the plume of smoke, that is probably most telling. Metaphorically, for the last 20 years, we have all been watching that plume of smoke, unable to look away. Sadly, we’ve never succeeded in understanding the human fire that caused that smoke; as a nation, we’ve never really understood the fuel, the oxygen, or the matches that create these fires, and despite enormous effort, we’ve certainly not understood how to put them out or prevent them from starting. Perhaps now, though, with our withdrawal from Afghanistan we can complete our grieving process and put our anger behind us, and turn our attention to the collective, constructive tasks we are called upon to undertake, to come together as a diverse national society and to preserve a livable world.

Ming Wan

Professor, Government and Politics

Associate Dean, Schar School of Policy and Government

I remember 9/11 as if it were yesterday, in slow motion. I was working in the basement of my Fairfax home, when my elder brother called me from New York City to say he was okay. “Why should I think you are in danger working in Wall Street?” I asked. He replied, “Turn on the TV.” Shortly afterwards, my younger brother and sister-in-law knocked on the door. They were dropping by after seeing her parents off at Dulles Airport. They had been in the dark about the attacks. We found out together on CNN that the plane that had crashed into Pentagon was the one their parents were on. My wife, who worked in a building not far from the White House, was somewhere trying to reach home. A real estate agent called out of blue to see if we would be interested in selling our house. The houses in our neighborhood had apparently been selling like hotcakes. “Shame on you,” I yelled. I cancelled my class for the next day.

A. Trevor Thrall

Associate Professor, International Security

Twenty years ago, a small group of hijackers shocked the United States and taught Americans to fear terrorism. I will never forget how we saw the best in our country as people rallied together to recover. Sadly, however, the events of 9/11 also unleashed America’s violent side. Instead of focusing on Al Qaeda, the United States launched a global war on terror under the illusion that terrorism was something that could be defeated militarily—at a staggering cost in lives and national treasure. Now that American troops have come home from Afghanistan, the United States can honor the victims of terrorism while starting a new and more peaceful chapter of our history.

National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial, dedicated in 2008, honors 184 people killed at the Pentagon and on American Airlines flight 77 when the Pentagon was attacked by terrorists on Sept. 11, 2001. Photo by Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Brien Aho

Colin Dueck

Professor, Government and Politics

In the years just before 9/11, I used to see the World Trade Center from my apartment window in Brooklyn. The events of that day were not only shocking, they reoriented U.S. foreign policy toward a new counterterrorism posture around the world. Over time, that posture involved many frustrations and mistakes. But we would do well to remember that Salafi-jihadist terrorists have not given up on their ideology or their ambitions. On the contrary, they see themselves as having succeeded in pushing America out of Afghanistan. The challenge for the United States will be to find a path moving forward that protects U.S. citizens and allies from terrorist attack, without exhausting the American public and its elected leaders.

Richard Kauzlarich

Distinguished Visiting Professor

U.S. Ambassador (ret.)

It is impossible to express my feelings of loss—for friends whose brother died in New York on 9/11, and people I do not know living that day over and over in their memories. In part, we saw the legacy of that day play out with the recent U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. As a former U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan and Bosnia and Herzegovina, I worry about how the rest of the world will see those two events impacting on the U.S. role in the world.

Mark N. Katz

Professor, Government and Politics

After I finished teaching my 9 a.m. class on Sept. 11, I walked across the Fairfax Campus to the Aquatics and Fitness Center on what I thought was an especially beautiful morning to do some exercise. There was a big screen television in the lobby with more than the usual number of people watching, but I didn't pay any attention to what was on. While riding an exercise bike, though, I could see in the lobby that more people had gathered to watch. I went to the lobby and learned the awful news. I walked back to my office with the sense that this was the beginning of a new, more ominous world. One of my students, an Army reservist, came by my office to say he expected to be called up and wanted to arrange to do his course work on an accelerated basis. I would also learn that one of my former students working in the Pentagon that day had survived. The sense of security that followed the collapse of communism in 1989-91 was gone.

Gen. Michael Hayden shared his thoughts on the Hayden Center website.

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Schar School News September 2021

Recap: Former Intelligence Leaders Discuss the Future of the Field—and Offer Advice to Students

Andrew J Schappert — Fri, 21 May 2021 14:59:58 +0000

Recap: Former Intelligence Leaders Discuss the Future of the Field—and Offer Advice to Students Andrew J Schappert Fri, 05/21/2021 - 10:59

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“And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” – John VIII-XXXII

The quote inscribed on the wall of the Original Headquarters Building of the Central Intelligence Agency is memorable, given both its call to action and its irony. The Intelligence Community knows all too well that officers spend day in and day out dealing with incomplete facts, half-truths, and trying to determine what may be disinformation.

But the quote inscribed under the orders of CIA director Allen Dulles (1953-61), determined what must be done in eras receding from our memory and into an increasingly distant past. What, or who, could possibly determine the future of intelligence?

The Michael V. Hayden Center for Intelligence, Policy, and International Security at the Schar School of Policy and Government hosted an event to answer what the future of intelligence might hold, bringing lessons from the past to a present (albeit virtual) audience.

Schar School distinguished visiting professor Michael Morell, former deputy director of the CIA, hosted a 90-minute conversation with three former senior intelligence officials. Those included Susan Gordon, the former Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence from 2017-2019 and Deputy Director of the National Geo-Spatial Intelligence Agency (NGA); Robert Cardillo, who served as Director of NGA from 2014-2019; and John Brennan, who served as Director of CIA from 2013-2017. General Michael Hayden also participated in the discussion.

More than 400 viewers tuned in from around the world. Another 250 have seen the recording on the Hayden Center’s YouTube channel.

Morell began by asking the panelists if the mission of intelligence has changed.

“My definition of the mission of intelligence is to know the truth, to see beyond the horizon, and to allow leaders to act before events dictate,” said Gordon, in concordance with the other panelists. “That is the greatest advantage we provide…knowing a little bit more, a little bit sooner, so that a leader has a running start on making a decision rather than having their hand forced by events.”

In that sense, the future of intelligence is the future itself.

Although the mission of the Intelligence Community appears stagnant, the threats to the nation are not. Morell switched his questioning to the rise of China, and what the future threats will surely be.

“I agree that China demands a very prominent, almost dominant, sort of focus as far as resource allocation and the interest of the Intelligence Community,” said Brennan. “At the same time, though, there are so many other issues, and what we don’t want to do is deprive some of these other issues of the necessary resources and capabilities.”

One of those capabilities lies in the ability to cooperate between partners within the Intelligence Community and outside of it, a capability some may have fallen short on.

“I think we’re playing catch-up now to raise our game, to work with partners in Treasury, to work with partners in the international community, and to work with private companies as well, in a way that raises insight into trade, monetary policy, international sanctions, [and more],” said Cardillo. “What I worry about going forward is that bureaucracy will not adapt and provide the agility, the time sensitivity, the innovation that I believe is demanded now of the Intelligence Community.”

The rise of China is concerning enough, but the technological boom in the last two decades will prove to be another future issue to contend with.

“The Intelligence Community does not have the technical foundation to deal with this data world,” said Gordon. “Whether it is in its infrastructure, whether in its hiring, whether it’s in its speed of motion—its ability to work with data, it doesn’t necessarily have the collectors that it needs to go after data that are going to provide the advantage we once had.”

Finally, and ultimately, the future of intelligence will rest on future generations.

“I do think it’s a technical world,” said Gordon, addressing those thinking of a career in intelligence. “Whatever you study, you need to be comfortable with technology, because so many solutions are going through that. But at the same time, I really want you to be a critical thinker.

“As technology becomes less the discriminator itself and the use of technology becomes the major advantage, people with a great behavioral science foundation, a great social science foundation, a great ability to do critical thinking—I can’t pick one discipline. I would encourage you to be a reader.”

“Whatever it is that interests you or motivates you, study it with a passion, and with an enthusiasm,” Brennan said. “Because with almost any discipline you can find a role within the Intelligence Community or national security structure. Study as best you can, and what it is that you like to do, and really, seriously, consider a future for yourself—in terms of your profession—somewhere within that U.S. government superstructure.”

General Hayden had one final piece of advice to give to those working in intelligence, both now and in the future. “Very simply, tell the truth,” he said. “Tell the truth.”

Schar School note: A generous gift from the Diana Davis Spencer Foundation provides $450,000 in new 2021-22 scholarships for master’s students enrolled in the Schar School's security studies programs, which includes intelligence.

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Intelligence

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Schar School News May 2021

Hayden Center Event Recap: The Quotes of Authors

Andrew J Schappert — Wed, 05 May 2021 18:23:53 +0000

Hayden Center Event Recap: The Quotes of Authors Andrew J Schappert Wed, 05/05/2021 - 14:23

The next Hayden Center event is Thursday, May 15, at 7 p.m. ET, when Michael Morell, former acting and deputy CIA director, sits down with Matthew Pottinger, President Trump’s deputy national security advisor and former National Security Council senior director for Asia, to discuss “China: National Security Consensus?” They will be joined by two former leading CIA analysts on China: Christopher Johnson, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and John Culver, who retired last year as the National Intelligence Officer for East Asia in the National Intelligence Council after decades at CIA.

Meanwhile, in case you missed it, here are outtakes from the last Hayden Center event, in which Schar School visiting fellow and former CIA official David Priess discussed spy fiction with popular authors Brad Thor, Karen Cleveland, and Alma Katsu. The conversation is available on YouTube and as a Lawfare podcast.

Brad Thor:

You should write what you love to read, because that’s where your passion is.
There is no American dream without those willing to protect it, so I’ve always been enamored with our warrior class, whether these be people in the military, law enforcement, or the intelligence community.
I buy a lot of pitchers of beer and a lot of steak dinners. I could not do what I do without the generosity of people who have served – whether it’s in the special operations community, or the intelligence community.
It’s only through the grace and generosity of people who have been in the world and been in these places that are willing to work with me that I am able to get those things right. So, I’m just very fortunate to have the network that I do.
It’s one of the issues that thriller authors deal with: You hope you’re not giving bad guys ideas. But, by the same token, if I’m giving bad guys ideas they’re really not as good as we think they are. But a couple of books ago, Use of Force, I opened with the Burning Man festival in the desert, in Black Rock City, in Nevada. There was a federal review of the security situation because of the book, and they decided that what they had seen in my book was very plausible and they wanted to tighten things up at Burning Man.
There have been instances where I have suggested things in the book that have gotten the attention of the government. So, if I’m helping in my own very minuscule small way to make the nation a safer place through the stuff I put in the books, then that’s a good thing.
I’m a big believer in what Robert Frost said: “No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader. No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader.”
Show up every day on the job as if it was your first day—and could be your last day on the job. I always want to strive to improve and get better. And that’s one of the great things I think about writing is that you always can get better.

Karen Cleveland:

When I wrote my first book, I decided to write about a CIA analyst because I was a CIA analyst. It was a world that I knew, and it was a world I was part of at the time.
I did try to take what I knew about those careers from working within them and apply them to my books.
I did have to submit all of my writing to the the CIA Publications Review board. That is sort of a life-long agreement that any CIA officer signs up for.
It is nice to have that check, I think. Because, I joined the CIA to help make our country a safer place and the last thing I would want to do is accidentally disclose anything classified, so I think it is a nice check to have.
I think one of the things that gets drilled into you as an analyst is that you can’t waste words, and policy makers have some real time constraints. You need to get to the point and you need to make them care about the issue and you need to make your argument compelling enough that they read your analysis to the end.
What people think about the CIA from movies and television a lot of times is this very flashy high-tech organization, and CIA is very high-tech but not in a flashy way. A lot of people work in cubicles and windowless vaults. Do you write it from that perspective? Or do you jazz it up a little bit?
I think it is important to show these strong female characters. There are so many different kinds of people who work at CIA. It’s not all gun-toting, globe-trotting men. There are plenty of gun-toting, globe-trotting women.

Alma Katsu:

I kept thinking: “I should be able to write a spy novel, right?” You know, I had this whole career in intelligence, and I can write. I should be able to put the two together. But it wasn’t until my editor really encouraged me to give it a try. And I knew there were things that I wanted to see in a spy novel that I wasn’t seeing in most spy novels up till now.
There was the aspect of knowing how gutting it is when you maybe have been working with a traitor—that somebody you know has been a traitor to the country. And I just wanted to bring that deep personal experience to that story.
The things they’re trying to protect are sources and methods. The entire time I was writing it, that was going through the back of my mind. You know, what could I say that wouldn’t strike anywhere near classified information.
I have really been heartened by the kind words people have shared, a lot of folks who have retired, who have worked in the intelligence community telling me how true to life it is.
Two-thirds of my career were spent with NSA. And NSA is a really interesting place to work—highly technical. And that’s the thing: The things the intelligence community protects the most are sources and methods, and it’s a story that probably deserves to be told. The people that work there are uniquely gifted people who give their lives in the service of the American people.
It’s really rare when there’s a clear-cut moral right and wrong.

David Priess:

I’m a big fan of Joseph Conrad, The Secret Agent, which is really foundational for anyone in this area. More recently, another foundational one is David Ignatius’, Agents of Innocence, a remarkable look inside a Middle Eastern operation.
Satire is starting to become an area of spy fiction.

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Michael V. Hayden Center for Intelligence Policy and International Security

Hayden Center

Events

Schar School News May 2021

David Preiss

What will U.S. security look like under Biden?

Mariam Aburdeineh — Mon, 14 Dec 2020 18:24:07 +0000

What will U.S. security look like under Biden? Mariam Aburdeineh Mon, 12/14/2020 - 13:24

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