Paul Pillar
Paul Pillar retired in 2005 from a twenty-eight-year career in the U.S. intelligence community, in which his last position was National Intelligence Officer for the Near East and South Asia. Earlier he served in a variety of analytical and managerial positions, including as chief of analytic units at the CIA covering portions of the Near East, the Persian Gulf, and South Asia. Professor Pillar also served in the National Intelligence Council as one of the original members of its Analytic Group. He is also a Contributing Editor for this publication.
How Donald Trump is Undermining the Intelligence Community
The recently published Annual Threat Assessment reflects the administration’s political priorities and biases and the intelligence community’s willingness to defer to them.
Stories from Paul Pillar
Israel’s “Gift” to Trump and the Malign Effects of Foreign Election Interference
A Trump-Netanyahu deal to delay a cease-fire in Lebanon until near the time Trump re-enters office evokes memories of two similar manipulations by U.S. presidential campaigns that were timed to...
The Subjugation of Palestinians Fuels Middle East Instability
In the Middle East, putting out burning fires is a priority. Larger positive accomplishments are impossible as long as the bloodshed continues. However, avoiding the endless igniting and reigniting of...
Make No Mistake: Trump Still Has A Russia Problem
Donald Trump’s peculiar relationship with Russia and its regime is getting some renewed attention and deserves to get even more. Some recent journalism underscores the seriousness of previous indications that...
Why Pressure on Iran Failed
U.S. policy toward Iran clearly has failed. This has been conspicuously true for at least the last six years since former president Donald Trump reneged on the multilateral agreement, known...
Why Foreign Interference in U.S. Elections is Growing
There is irony in what appears to be an Iranian hack of the electronic files of Donald Trump’s campaign. Details are unclear and unconfirmed, but a day after Microsoft issued...
National Character and Wartime Abuses
With the record of newly minted Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris being freshly scrutinized, one recently recalled item is her reaction to revelations several years ago of the torture of...
The Supreme Court’s Ruling Imperils American Foreign Policy
The extraordinary departure by the Republican majority on the Supreme Court regarding presidential immunity—which understandably elicited shocked reactions such as from Justice Sonia Sotomayor (“With fear for our democracy, I...
Hamas Is Not the Issue
The Israeli occupation of the West Bank and other Palestinian territories is now more than a half-century old. The fading of memories with time has led to a lack of...
Why Campus Protests Will Not Help End the Israeli-Palestinian Tragedy
The spread of protests against policies that have generated the current humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip has been remarkable. Initially centered at Columbia University in New York, the protest...
How Foreign Governments Interfere in U.S. Politics
The Chinese ownership of the video app TikTok—targeted by a bill that the House of Representatives passed with a large bipartisan majority—might indicate a severe concern about curbing the influence...
Handling—and Mishandling—Intelligence
The news about Alexander Smirnov, a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen with murky connections in former Soviet republics, was quite a comedown from what Republican members of Congress were making of the...
Why an Israel-Saudi Deal Won’t Bring Middle East Peace
The Biden administration continues to give high priority to brokering a Saudi-Israeli diplomatic normalization agreement. The political motivations behind Biden’s seeking of such a deal earlier in his presidency were...