Kenneth Gause

... (in North Korea) these struggles for influence could turn into struggles for power, and that can be very destabilizing.

Ken Gause is a senior research analyst with CNA Strategic Studies’ International Affairs Group and Iranian Studies Program.  He oversees CNA’s work on foreign leadership studies and is expert on leadership issues concerning North Korea.

His focus on leadership analysis dates to the early 1980s with his work on the Soviet Union for the U.S. government. More recently, his work has centered on such regimes as Iran, Iraq, and Syria and North Korea. His most recent studies have been on the human and physical terrain of Iranian provinces, with his work filling a major gap in the scholarship on life and politics outside of Tehran.

Gause has directed several studies that focus on political, military, and security issues related to Iran and other Persian Gulf countries. He has also lead several studies on Iranian leadership and decision-making at the national level. In 2009, he authored a study on the consequences of a distressed Iran, which examined current and future stresses on the regime.

Gause began his career as a leadership analyst with the U.S. government, posted for three years in Moscow. Since the mid-1980s, he has worked for a number of defense-related think tanks, where he has strived to push the boundaries of leadership analysis. Prior to joining CNA in 1999, Gause was Director of Research for Keesing’s Worldwide Directory of Defense Authorities.

Gause holds a B.A. in Political Science and Russian from Vanderbilt University, and earned an M.A. in Soviet and East European Affairs from George Washington University.  (Click here to see an interview with Ken Gause.)