James R. Clapper, who served as U.S. Director of National Intelligence in the Obama Administration, has joined the executive board of the Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law (CERL) at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, CERL announced today.
“It is an honor to welcome Director Clapper to CERL’s executive board,” said Professor Claire Finkelstein, founder and faculty director of CERL. “His troves of knowledge and experience gained over decades of distinguished intelligence and military service are extraordinary and will open new paths for CERL to investigate critical rule of law issues and related policy in national security. The entire CERL team is thrilled he has joined.”
Director Clapper became the country’s fourth Director of National Intelligence (DNI) in 2010 following President Barack Obama’s nomination and the Senate’s unanimous confirmation, serving until 2017. Before this position, he served for more than three years in two administrations as Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence while simultaneously acting as Director of Defense Intelligence for the DNI.
“I am pleased and honored to be associated with the Center for Ethics and Rule of Law, which serves as an influential advocate for truth and the ethical conduct of national security functions—now, more critically important than ever in our history,” said Director Clapper.
Director Clapper began his military career as an enlisted Marine Corps reservist and rose to become a three-star Air Force lieutenant general. He retired in 1995 and worked as a business executive in the private sector for six years while also serving as a consultant to Congress and the Departments of Defense and Energy. He returned to government service two days after 9/11 as the first civilian director of the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) (2001-2006), transforming it into today’s National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). In 2017, Director Clapper was named a non-resident Senior Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. He is the author of Facts and Fears: Hard Truths from a Life in Intelligence (with Trey Brown) (Viking, 2018).
Paul G. Haaga, Jr., CERL’s executive board chair, shares Professor Finkelstein’s enthusiasm. “Director Clapper will propel CERL on many fronts. We look forward to his tenure here,” he said.
