By Kenneth Dekleva, MD
Professor of Psychiatry
UTSW Medical Center
Grand Prairie, TX
I was honored to be an invited speaker at the Psychiatric Society of Virginia Fall 2023 meeting.
The subject of my talk was Leadership Analysis and its 21st-Century Challenges. This domain, developed during WWII by the OSS and later refined at the CIA by my mentor, the late Dr. Jerrold Post, has served the national security and policy community for decades in understanding the political psychology, actions during crises, and negotiation strategies of adversary foreign leaders. I focused upon the critical and historic role – ongoing as we speak! – played by psychiatrists who have served in the national security community. Today as our great nation faces complex foreign policy challenges unseen since WWI, this discipline within intelligence analysis is more sorely needed than ever, as we confront dangerous adversaries such as Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, Kim Jong-un, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khameini, and leaders of sophisticated terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah — and our leaders are faced with the challenges of fighting on many fronts, in a conflict that pits democracy against autocracy.
My talk focused on the various methodological, ethical, forensic, and practical challenges of performing leadership analysis of adversary leaders, including modern, topical challenges such as dealing with the media, social media, and understanding the higher-order social, political/economic, historical, and cultural effects of conflicts and their analytic problems. I concluded by touching upon other domains where leadership analysis may increasingly come into play, such as insider threat, private sector, hostage/kidnap/ransomware scenarios, emerging markets, and even domestic politics. In an audience with many medical students, residents in psychiatry, and young faculty, I was pleased to introduce them to the challenges and joys of career combining medicine/psychiatry and national security.
I thank the PSV and its President, Dr. Arias, for giving this wonderful opportunity to share my knowledge and joy regarding a discipline which has enthralled me for decades, since I first heard of the pioneering work of the late, great psychiatrist Dr. Jerrold Post.
