Dennis M. Gormley

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Dennis M. Gormley (1943-2020) was a non-resident senior fellow with the Middle East Institute. He began his career when he enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1966 and was commissioned an ordnance officer. He was selected to become the intelligence-briefing officer for 22 flag-rank officers at the Army Material Command headquarters in Washington, D.C. After military service, Mr. Gormley became the civilian head of intelligence at the Army’s Harry Diamond Laboratories in Washington. Mr. Gormley left government service in 1979 to join a small California consulting firm called Pacific-Sierra Research Corporation, and rose to become the head of the Washington office and a member of the board of directors. During this period of time, Mr. Gormley also twice served as a research associate at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. After Pacific-Sierra Research was sold in 1999, Mr. Gormley started his own consulting firm—Blue Ridge Consulting—that focused primarily on supporting the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA.

In 2003, Mr. Gormley left the consulting business and worked for the next 15 years as a faculty member and instructor at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh and ten years as a Senior Fellow at the Washington office of the Monterey Institute of International Affairs. During his long career Mr. Gormley chaired or served on numerous Department of Defense and intelligence advisory panels and frequently testified before Senate and House committees of Congress. He has served as a consultant to the Brookings Institution, the RAND Corporation, and Sandia National Laboratories, among others. For the last three years he was one of 21 commissioners—seven each from the U.S., Germany, and Russia—overseeing the work of the “Deep Cuts Commission,” an international nongovernmental body charged with studying the challenges of achieving deep cuts in global nuclear arsenals.

Gormley wrote prolifically on missile proliferation, missile defense, nuclear proliferation, and intelligence. He was the author of four books, one of which (Missile Contagion: Cruise Missile Proliferation and the Threat to International Security, 2008) was translated into Chinese, and nearly 250 journal articles, book chapters, monographs, invited papers, and op-eds.

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Trump Close to Changing Obama-Era Drone Policy

At long last, the Trump administration is close to announcing a decision on modifying key elements of Obama-era drone strikes. According to the New York Times, the proposed changes would relax constraints on drone strikes and commando raids outside of previously limited battlespace. This would expand strikes to occur in countries where militants are operating, but where U.S. attacks previously had not occurred.

Norms Needed to Regulate Use of Armed Drones

Armed drones are on the edge of widespread proliferation, with China now entering the market and a growing appetite for the lethal weapons in the Middle East. This new development, however, should not become reason for the United States to mimic China’s behavior. Instead, Washington should continue its policy of judicious flexibility in regard to drone sales.

The Destabilizing Role of Missiles in the Middle East

The destabilizing role of ballistic and cruise missiles in the Middle East has stood out since the end of the Second World War: more than 90 percent of the well-over 5,000 missiles fired in combat have taken place in the Middle East.[1] Moreover, because offensive missiles have become so prominent a feature of wars in the Middle East, missile defenses have begun to play a major role in countering growing offensive missile arsenals.