Richard E. Hegmann, Ph.D.

Education

Ph.D. Politics, Brandeis University
B.A. Political Science, Hobart College

Biography

Dr. Hegmann is the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency’s (D/CIA) Faculty Representative to Marine Corps University, holds a PhD from Brandeis University, and has served for almost three decades as a CIA military analyst covering wars, conflicts, and crises in the Middle East, South Asia, East Asia, Eastern Aegean, and the Balkans. His analytic and managerial roles have centered on providing direct support to US military operations and CIA counterterrorism operations in the Middle East and South Asia. Dr. Hegmann received the CIA Intelligence Medal of Merit and the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) National Intelligence Exceptional Achievement Medal for his analytic writing and briefing roles in directly supporting the preparation and execution of the US raid that killed Usama bin Ladin.

 

Dr. Hegmann has served in multiple CIA units that earned Meritorious Unit Citations, and was commended by the I Marine Expeditionary Force (MEF) Commanding General for deploying to the Middle East in 2003 to red team the MEF’s and 1st Marine Division’s war plans prior to the launch of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). Back in Washington, during OIF through the end of 2005 he briefed the President of the United States of America, the Vice President, Secretary of Defense, National Security Advisor, and CENTCOM Commanding General, and, early in OIF, he lead off the daily situation briefing for DCIA Tenet.

 

More broadly, Dr. Hegmann has published numerous cutting-edge, sensitive assessments that combined politico-military and forces-operations analyses, and he has managed analytic teams at the branch chief, deputy group chief, and group chief levels of leadership, including during the heavy spike in fighting in Afghanistan in 2007-2008. Beyond the post-9/11 Long War, his analytic production as a member of the CIA Directorate of Analysis’s Senior Analytic Service ranged across topics involving regional near-peer military adversaries and state-to-state conflicts in South Asia, East Asia, the Middle East, and Persian Gulf, focusing on conventional force balances, doctrines, and war plans, as well as on strategic nuclear deterrence and forces.

 

Dr. Hegmann earned a PhD in Politics, focusing on strategic studies, at Brandeis University. His doctoral dissertation was on the historical roots of the US Navy’s 1980s Maritime Strategy of offensive naval operations, and was summarized in a published article in the Journal of Strategic Studies. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science, with a History minor, from Hobart College, where he graduated summa cum laude and was inducted into the academic honor society Phi Beta Kappa.

 

Between college and graduate school, he served three years active duty as an infantry officer in the US Marine Corps, serving as a rifle platoon commander and weapons platoon commander in 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines, 1st Marine Division. Dr. Hegmann is a member of the US Naval Institute and the US Marine Corps Association and Foundation.