Paul Pillar

Paul Pillar serves as a non-resident senior fellow at Georgetown University's Center for Security Studies and the Brookings Institution's Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence, following a distinguished 28-year career in the U.S. intelligence community. After earning degrees from Dartmouth College (AB), Oxford University (BPhil), and Princeton University (PhD), he served as an Army Reserve officer in Vietnam before joining the CIA in 1977. His intelligence career included key leadership positions such as National Intelligence Officer for the Near East and South Asia, Executive Assistant to CIA Director William Webster, chief of analysis and deputy director at the Counterterrorist Center, and various analytical and managerial roles covering the Near East, Persian Gulf, and South Asia. After retiring in 2005, he became a visiting professor at Georgetown University from 2005 to 2012, where he contributed significantly to academic discourse on intelligence and national security issues. His expertise is demonstrated through his contributions to The National Interest and his critical analysis of intelligence utilization in national security decision-making.