Mr. Ermarth retired on 1 October 1998 as a member of the Senior Intelligence Service of CIA. He has worked over 40 years on national security affairs in government, academic, and commercial institutions specializing in Soviet, strategic, and regional conflict issues and performing management roles in intelligence, analytical, and policy organizations. Currently, he consults with several organizations working on national security, including nuclear weapons policy, intelligence reform, US-Russian relations, and regional security.
Mr. Ermarth served as the Chairman of the National Intelligence Council, the body which prepares National Intelligence Estimates, under Directors of Central Intelligence William Webster and Robert Gates, from 1988 to 1993. Salient issues handled under his direction included the collapse of the Warsaw Pact and the USSR, and the end of the Cold War. In addition to directing analysis of these issues, he played a leading role in crisis contingency planning to handle them during the Bush Administration.
Subsequently, in 1993-94, he was a sabbatic fellow at the Rand Corporation where he studied global trends such as the revolution in military affairs, globalization of economics and culture, the development of post-communist societies, and the internal problems of advanced industrial democracies.
In 1994-95 he was a staff consultant to the Commission on Roles and Missions of the Armed Forces for which he developed a briefing on the global environment facing US defense planning. He also served as a special advisor in the Navy Department.
In 1995-96 Mr. Ermarth planned and organized interagency multicrisis simulations designed to test Community management knowledge and skills. He led a special interagency team studying intelligence strategy and management for the future.
In his previous career, Mr. Ermarth served as:
Soviet affairs analyst at Radio Free Europe, Munich, Germany, 1965-68
Strategic and Soviet affairs analyst, Rand Corporation, 1968-72
Special Assistant to the Director of Central Intelligence, 1973
Director, Strategic Evaluation Center, CIA, 1973-76
Director, Program Evaluation, Intelligence Community Staff, 1976-77
Director, Strategic Programs, Rand Corporation, 1977-78
Member of the National Security Council Staff, 1978-80
Senior Technical Analyst, Northrop Corporation, 1980-83
National Intelligence Officer for USSR and East Europe, CIA, 1983-86
Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director of Soviet and European Affairs, National Security Council Staff, 1986-88.
Mr. Ermarth is the recipient of the Distinguished Intelligence Medal and the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal.
Mr. Ermarth was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1941 and grew up in St. Peter, Minnesota, and Springfield, Ohio. He received a BA in History from Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio, in 1961, and an MA in Soviet Studies from Harvard University in 1963. Mr. Ermarth speaks German and Russian.
