David Gordon

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Person.png David Gordon  Rdf-entity.pngRdf-icon.png
(spook, academic)
David F. Gordon.png
NationalityUnited States
Alma materBowdoin College, University of Michigan
Member ofCenter for a New American Security
Interests • Kenya
• East Africa
• sanctions

David F. Gordon is a high-ranking CIA operative. For ten years, Gordon represented the intelligence community on the White House coordinating committee on international economic policy, including as Vice Chairman of the National Intelligence Council (NIC) from 2004 to 2007. He has personally briefed every US president since George H. W. Bush.[1]

Early career

Gordon was senior political economist for Abt Associates, a Cambridge-based consulting firm.[2][3]

He was the regional economic policy and governance advisor for Eastem and Southern Africa for USAID, based in Nairobi, Kenya.

He was a senior Democratic professional staff member of the Committee on Intemational Relations of the U.S. House of Representatives.

He was director of the U.S. Policy Program at the Overseas Development Council, and co-director of the Foreign Policy Project.[2]


Gordon served in a top management role at the National Intelligence Council (NIC) from 2004 to 2007, during which time he led the NIC's integration into the new Office of the Director of National Intelligence and its reemergence as the preeminent analytic center in the US government through enhancing analytic quality and integrity in the aftermath of the 2003 Iraq National Intelligence Estimate. He provided analytic leadership for the NIC's groundbreaking reports, Global Trends 2015 and Global Trends 2020.[4]

After 9/11, he played a leading role in the development of strategies and tools of financial coercion.[1]

From 2007 to 2009, Gordon was made director of policy planning under Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. He played a leading role in developing policy ideas for Rice on issues ranging from Afghanistan and Pakistan to US engagement in East Asia to the multilateral response to the international financial crisis. He also led the department's strategic policy dialogues with more than 20 countries around the globe.[4]

At the IISS, Gordon provides direction and leadership to the multi-year project on China’s Belt and Road Initiative. He also supports the Institute’s programme on Geo-economics, Geopolitics and Strategy.[5]

After officially leaving government service, he was chairman and head of research for the global political risk advisory firm Eurasia Group from January 2009.[5]

Gordon has taught at the College of William and Mary, the ]]University of Michigan]], the University of Nairobi, Boston University, and Michigan State University.

Gordon is an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security. He is also an adjunct professor in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.

Since leaving government, Gordon has been a frequent contributor to discussions of global politics and international economics on television and in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal Financial Times, Foreign Affairs and Foreign Policy.[1]


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