Mowatt-Larssen Succeeds Ryan

Will Lead Intelligence/Defense and Saudi/Gulf Projects

Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, a former senior fellow with the Belfer Center and long-time intelligence officer, has been named Director of the Center’s Intelligence and Defense Projects and Project on Saudi and GCC Security. He succeeds Brigadier General (ret) Kevin Ryan, who joined the Center in 2005.

Mowatt-Larssen has been affiliated with the Center as a senior fellow since 2009, following his service as Director of the Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence at the U.S. Department of Energy and as head of the Central Intelligence Agency’s WMD and counter-terrorism efforts. Prior to his appointment to the top intelligence position in the Department of Energy, Mowatt-Larssen served for 23 years as a CIA intelligence officer in various domestic and international posts, including as Deputy Associate Director of Central Intelligence for Military Support and Chief of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Department and the Counterterrorism Center.

A graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Mowatt-Larssen is the recipient of a number of awards including the CIA Director’s Award, Distinguished Career Intelligence Medal, Commendation Medal, and Secretary of Defense Civilian Distinguished Service Medal.

Kevin Ryan joined the Belfer Center in 2005 as a senior fellow and in 2009 founded the Center’s U.S.–Russia Initiative to Prevent Nuclear Terrorism. He served as the Center’s Executive Director for Research from 2010 to 2013, at which time he became founding Director of the Center’s Intelligence and Defense Projects.

Ryan will continue as an associate at the Center working on intelligence and defense issues with a focus on Russian military and security issues. He will also remain, along with Mowatt-Larssen, part of The Elbe Group, which Ryan launched in 2010 to maintain open communications between high-level defense and intelligence officials in the U.S. and Russia.

“We will greatly miss interacting with Kevin on a daily basis,” said Belfer Center Director Graham Allison, “but we are fortunate to have Rolf taking his space as head of our intelligence and defense and Saudi/GCC initiatives and as manager of our Recanati-Kaplan Foundation Fellows Program. We have benefited for a number of years from Rolf’s insights on intelligence, nuclear security, and other issues, and look forward to having him here full-time in his new position.”

“I am looking forward to continuing the cutting-edge work of the Belfer Center,” Mowatt-Larssen said, “bringing intelligence and defense issues of policy relevance into focus for students, experts and researchers, in the U.S. and internationally.”