- Pritzker Fellows
- Former Fellows
- Michael Morell
Michael Morell
Former Acting Director of the CIA
Biography
Michael Morell, former Acting Director of the Central Intelligence Agency during the Obama Administration, is one of our nation’s leading national security professionals. He has been at the center of the U.S. fight against terrorism, its work to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and its efforts to respond to trends that are altering the international landscape — including the Arab Spring, the rise of China, and the cyber threat.
Since leaving the CIA in 2013, most of his work remains tied to national security. He is a national security commentator for CBS News and a frequent guest on the Charlie Rose Show. He is a Senior Fellow at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government; a Senior Fellow at West Point’s Center on Combatting Terrorism; a member of the Aspen Institute’s Homeland Security Group, which advises the Secretary of Homeland Security on national security issues; a member of the Board of Directors of the Atlantic Council, a member of the Advisory Board to the University of Chicago’s Project on Security and Terrorism, and a member of the Atlantic Council’s advisory group to its study on the future of the Middle East. He served as a Member of President Obama’s Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technology. Michael also is involved with charities associated with supporting the families of fallen soldiers and intelligence officers.
Michael is the author of the New York Times bestseller on CIA’s nearly 20-year fight against al Qa`ida. “The Great War of Our Time: An Insider’s Account of the CIA’s Fight Against Terrorism – From al Qaida to ISIS” was released in 2015.
During his 33-year career at CIA, Michael served as Deputy Director for over three years, a job in which he managed the agency’s day-to-day operations, represented the agency at the White House and Congress, and maintained the agency’s relationships with intelligence services and foreign leaders around the world. Michael also served twice as Acting Director in 2011 and from 2012 to 2013.
Michael is the only person who was both with President Bush on September 11th, when al-Qaida burst into the American consciousness, and with President Obama on May 1, when Bin Laden was brought to justice. Michael played a major role in the Bin Laden operation.
Michael’s senior assignments at CIA also included serving for two years as the Director of Intelligence, the agency’s top analyst, and for two years as Executive Director, the CIA’s top administrator — managing human resources, the budget, security, and information technology for an agency the size of a Fortune 200 firm.
Michael received the Presidential Rank Award for exceptional performance — the nation’s highest honor for civilian service. He also received the Distinguished Intelligence Medal, CIA’s highest award, for his role in the Bin Ladin operation. Michael is also the recipient of the Distinguished Career Intelligence Medal, the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal, and the Department of Defense Service Medal.
A native of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, Michael maintains close ties to northeast Ohio. Michael is a first-generation college student, earning a B.A. summa cum laude in economics from the University of Akron. He also earned an M.A. in economics from Georgetown University.
Seminars
“Inside the CIA: The Business of Intelligence”
Intelligence - the collection and analysis of the plans and capabilities of our adversaries - has never been more important. First-rate intelligence is essential to helping U.S. policymakers both understand and respond to the unprecedented national security threats and challenges the country faces today. This seminar will look at the work of the U.S. Intelligence Community - the collection of 16 departments and agencies that conduct intelligence operations on behalf of the U.S. - with a particular focus on the CIA. The seminar will be led by Michael Morell, a career CIA officer who rose from entry-level analyst to deputy director and twice acting director. Michael will take seminar participants behind the curtain to understand the least well understood tool of national security, the IC’s successes and failures of the past decade, and as well as some of the controversial operations undertaken by the CIA.
What exactly is intelligence work and how is it done? In this first session, we’ll lay out the Intelligence Community’s key responsibilities of collection and analysis and outline the three main components of collection: overhead reconnaissance, electronic and digital eavesdropping, and the recruitment of human beings to provide secret information. The session will then focus on this latter category of collection - old-fashioned spying, which is done up close and personal, face-to-face. A former senior CIA operations officer will join the seminar to describe this key job. This individual, Kevin, will discuss how these officers clandestinely recruit and manage agents. Further information about Kevin is being withheld for security reasons.
Special Guest: A former Career & Senior CIA Operations Officer
Diplomacy is perhaps the most under-appreciated tool for keeping the country safe. This session will explore the role intelligence plays in diplomacy and how the U.S. Intelligence Community supports diplomacy in all its forms.
Special Guest: Wendy Sherman, Lead U.S. Negotiator on the 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal & former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs
Ensuring that all intelligence gathering is consistent with the U.S. Constitution and relevant U.S. law and U.S. treaty obligations is the task of hundreds of lawyers at CIA and other agencies of the Intelligence Community. This seminar will explore the key laws and constitutional principles that govern intelligence work and the important role lawyers play in intelligence operations.
Special Guest: Stephen Preston, Partner at D.C. Firm Wilmer Hale & former General Council at the CIA and the Department of Defense
The judgment that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein possessed nuclear weapons was one of greatest intelligence failures in U.S. history. The key players in the U.S. intelligence community, along with nearly everyone else, concluded that Saddam not only possessed chemical weapons but also maintained a biological weapons production capability and was restarting a program to build nuclear weapons. We will assess why the intelligence community got it so wrong and consider the important lessons learned. We also will address what the right judgment would have looked like and what would have happened if the Intelligence Community had gotten it right - in short, how would/could history have been different.
The use of harsh interrogation techniques against senior Al Qaeda operatives by the CIA after 9/11 represents one of the most controversial chapters in the agency’s history. This session will look at what agency officers did, why they were asked to do it and what the results were of that work. We also will consider the legal, policy, political and moral issues involved, as well as the controversial report on the program produced by the Senate Intelligence Committee, a summary of which was released in 2014.
Bringing Osama bin Laden to justice was an operation 10 years in the making, involving numerous intelligence challenges and a well-planned and exceptionally executed military operation. It is one of only a handful of this country’s covert actions that can be discussed publicly, as it was declassified by the president the night of the raid. This session will provide an in-depth look at all aspects of the operation and will draw critical lessons learned.
Military operations have become more tailored and more precise in the past decade - whether a raid by special forces, smart bombs dropped from a B-2, or Hellfire missiles launched from a drone. This puts a premium on the Intelligence Community providing military commanders with first-rate intelligence. It also has resulted in a growing partnership between the Intelligence Community and the Department of Defense. We’ll discuss the promises and challenges of those evolving dynamics.
Special Guest: Admiral Sandy Winnefeld, Retired Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Commander of the USS Enterprise on 9/11 & former Top Gun Pilot
The next president from day one will face challenging national security issues - from terrorism, cyber crime and the spread of the world's most dangerous weapons, to the upheaval in the Middle East, the rise of China and malign behavior by Russia, Iran and North Korea. The Intelligence Community, led by CIA, will provide the president-elect with briefings on these and other important issues. Students in this session will experience what the president-elect likely will receive at his/her first intelligence briefing.