Paul Heer Joins the Center for the National Interest

The Center for the National Interest is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Paul Heer, a former National Intelligence Officer for East Asia, as a Distinguished Fellow dealing with Chinese and East Asian issues.

“With Paul Heer, we gain the expertise of one of the most sober-minded and insightful China analysts that the U.S. government has produced. He will contribute significantly to the Center’s work on China and its role in the world, the most important foreign policy issue facing the United States,” said Dimitri Simes, President and CEO of the Center for the National Interest. The addition of Heer is part of a broader expansion of the Center supported by a grant from the Charles Koch Foundation.

Dr. Heer served for 30 years as an analyst in the U.S. government, having worked as an analytic manager and member of the Central Intelligence Agency’s Senior Analytic Service prior to becoming NIO for East Asia, a position he held from 2007 to 2015. He was a Visiting Intelligence Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations from 1999 to 2000, and was elected a Life Member of CFR in 2001. He was the Robert E. Wilhelm Fellow at MIT’s Center for International Studies during 2015-2016, and later served as Adjunct Professor at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs. Dr. Heer is a recipient of the CIA’s Distinguished Career Intelligence Medal and the DNI’s National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Loras College, a Master of Arts in history from the University of Iowa, and a Ph.D. in diplomatic history from The George Washington University. His book, Mr. X and the Pacific: George Kennan and American Policy in East Asia, was published in 2018.