Maj. Gen. James R. Marrs, USAF (Ret.)
Director, Global Dynamics and Intelligence Division
Jim Marrs is the Director of the Global Dynamics and Intelligence Division of the IDA Systems and Analyses Center. He leads a team of highly skilled IDA researchers focused on a range of geostrategic and intelligence-related issues in support of the Department of Defense and the U.S. Intelligence Community.
Jim served in the U.S. Air Force, retiring as a major general in January 2020. Prior to joining IDA, he served concurrently as Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance on the Headquarters Air Force Staff and as the National Intelligence Manager for Aviation under the auspices of the Director of National Intelligence.
In his first operational assignment, to the Air Force Electronic Warfare Center, Jim applied operations research methods to solve electronic warfare problems. His 32-year career includes a variety of duties spanning operations, strategy, policy, and plans as well as deployments to operations Desert Shield, Desert Storm, Southern Watch, and Enduring Freedom. He has commanded at the squadron, group, center, and wing levels. He led twice as a joint director for intelligence (J2), first as the U.S. Cyber Command J2 and, subsequently, as the Joint Staff J2. He also served as a special advisor to the Vice President of the United States where he provided advice and expertise on a range of national security issues. His seven joint assignments included intelligence, cyber, space, interagency, and multinational leadership experiences.
Jim was commissioned in 1987 as a distinguished and honors graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy, earning a bachelor’s degree in international affairs. He received a master’s degree in public policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and a master’s degree from the School of Advanced Airpower Studies at Air University.
Larry Hanauer
Deputy Director
Larry Hanauer is the Deputy Director of the Global Dynamics and Intelligence Division at the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA), a federally funded research and development center (FFRDC). In this role, he manages a team of researchers examining intelligence-related issues in support of the Department of Defense and the U.S. Intelligence Community, with particular emphases on Russia, China, sub-Saharan Africa, and global intelligence collection and analysis capabilities.
Before joining IDA, Larry spent more than 25 years working on national security issues in the executive and legislative branches of government, at a leading think tank, at a large defense contractor, and at an industry trade association.
From 2016 to 2023, Larry served as Vice President for Policy at the Intelligence and National Security Alliance (INSA), a non-profit organization that promotes public-private partnerships in the national security and intelligence communities. As the lead for INSA’s advocacy efforts with Congress and the executive branch, he promoted intelligence reform and modernization initiatives designed to improve industry’s support to Intelligence Community missions. Larry drove INSA’s thought leadership, outreach, and public affairs on critical national security challenges and Intelligence Community business practices.
From 2010 to 2016, he worked as a Senior International Policy Analyst at the RAND Corporation, where his research focused on foreign policy, intelligence, and national security, principally regarding the Middle East and Africa.
From 2005 to 2010, Larry was a senior staff member of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI), one of two congressional committees charged with overseeing the U.S. Intelligence Community. During the 110th and 111th Congresses (2007-2010), he served as Staff Director of the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Human Intelligence, Analysis and Counterintelligence, which oversees all activities, programs, and budgets of the CIA, Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), the national security elements of the FBI, and the intelligence components of the Departments of State, Treasury, Energy, and Homeland Security.
Before working for Congress, Larry was an associate at Booz Allen Hamilton, where from 2003 to 2005 he worked on intelligence-related projects for CIA, DIA, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), and the Department of Homeland Security.
From 1995 to 2003, Larry was a policy advisor in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD Policy), during which he contributed to U.S. defense policy toward Israel, Iraq, Eastern Europe and West Africa. His last Pentagon assignment was as special assistant to Jay Garner, the Interim Civil Administrator of Iraq, and as deputy director of Garner’s Pentagon liaison office. Larry spent 2002 as a Brookings Institution Fellow in the office of Congressman Joe Crowley of New York, whom he advised on foreign affairs, defense, trade and homeland security.
Larry received his master’s degree in law and diplomacy from Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and his bachelor’s degree in English, magna cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He is fluent in French.
Tara McGovern, Ph.D
Assistant Director
Tara McGovern joined IDA in 2006 to work on modeling and simulation related to operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Since then, she has led efforts on counterterrorism, intelligence issues, and critical infrastructure protection. Most recently, she supported multiple cybersecurity projects for the Department of Homeland Security. Tara has a doctorate in public policy from George Mason University. She earned a master’s degree in security studies from Georgetown University and her bachelor’s degree in international relations from Wellesley College. Tara is a graduate of the George Washington University National Security Studies Senior Management Program.
Taft Blackburn
Assistant Director
Taft Blackburn is the Assistant Director of the Global Dynamics and Intelligence Division at the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA), a federally funded research and development center. In this role, he manages projects related to Russian national security. While at IDA, Taft has also led a Department of Defense lessons-learned project on Ukrainian ground forces, managed the drafting of a NATO ACT paper titled, “IDA White paper – Russian in 2030,” and led multiple wargame exercises and research projects. He co-leads a U.S. European Command (EUCOM) series of wargames, “EUCOM Force Mix.”
A retired U.S. Army officer with a 30-year career, Taft served as a Eurasian foreign area officer (FAO). He was the Army attaché and chief of attaché operations at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow from 2012 to 2014 and 2016 to 2017. Taft was also the defense attaché and senior defense official in Serbia, Tajikistan and Moldova. In his FAO role, Taft was assigned as the deputy political advisor to the chief of staff of the Army and chief of the International Affairs Division, G3/5/7, at the Department of the U.S. Army. Prior to his FAO work, he served in the Second Armored Cavalry Regiment, deploying to Haiti as the ghost troop commander, and as an armor platoon leader and executive officer in Germany during the last days of the Cold War.
Taft earned a master’s degree in business administration from George Mason University, a master’s degree in Eurasian studies from Georgetown University and a bachelor’s degree in German language from the United States Military Academy. He was a U.S. Army War College fellow at the Atlantic Council.