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Office Artifacts: John Woodward

Pardee School prof shares CIA memorabilia

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John Woodward has a habit of using the sentence, “I can neither confirm nor deny I served in that country.”

Woodward, a Pardee School of Global Studies and College of Arts & Sciences professor of the practice of international relations, is a 21-year veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency, and on display in his Bay State Road office are many artifacts and memorabilia from his treks abroad. During his intelligence career, Woodward estimates he traveled to 30 countries, serving as an operations officer in the National Clandestine Service, as a technical intelligence officer in the Directorate of Science and Technology, and as director of the US Department of Defense Biometrics Management Office. He has testified before Congress four times, and in October 2015 received the CIA’s Career Intelligence Medal, awarded to those who have significantly contributed to the agency. Woodward’s area of expertise is biometrics.

Hollywood’s depiction of CIA agents isn’t entirely accurate, Woodward says. For instance, “We’re not all knuckle draggers and torturers. Most intelligence work is tedium and requires having great attention to detail over seemingly trivial matters. There are a lot of hours spent on preparation and minutes spent on actual execution.”