John McLaughlin

Over a three decade career with the CIA, Mr. McLaughlin has worked on nearly every part of the world, frequently briefed the President and the Congress, represented the intelligence community in meetings of the National Security Council, and traveled widely to strengthen U.S. relations with national security counterparts in numerous countries. He continues to testify in Congress and to participate in public policy debates through Op-Eds in major newspapers and commentary on CNN.In the late 1980s and early 1990s, McLaughlin directed the CIA’s analytic work on Europe during the period marked by the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.

Four months after the break-up of the Soviet Union, he was put in charge of CIA’s analysis of the fifteen independent states that emerged from the USSR. During this time, he frequently represented the Intelligence Community on the US diplomatic missions that established initial relations with these newly-independent countries.

While Deputy Director for Intelligence from 1997 to 2000, he created the Senior Analytic Service, a CIA career track that enables analysts to rise to very senior rank without branching out into management and founded the Sherman Kent School for Intelligence Analysis.

In addition to his CIA career, Mr. McLaughlin has served in the State Department, on Capitol Hill, and in the US Army, completing a tour as an officer in Vietnam in the 1960s. Mr. McLaughlin is the recipient of the Distinguished Intelligence Community Service Award and the National Security Medal. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, and a national security advisor to the Cable News Network (CNN).