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Dr. Larry M. Wortzel no longer works for the Heritage Foundation.

Dr. Larry M. Wortzel is a leading authority on China, Asia, intelligence issues, foreign policy, national security, and military strategy. In 1999, Dr. Wortzel joined The Heritage Foundation as Asian Studies Center director upon completing a distinguished 32-year career in the U.S. armed forces. His last military position as an Army colonel was as director of the Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College. He was vice president for foreign policy and defense studies at The Heritage Foundation for two years, between November 2002 and March 2005. Dr. Wortzel is a commissioner on the Congressionally-appointed U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (appointed by Speaker Hastert). He continues to be associated with The Heritage Foundation as a fellow.

Following three years in the Marine Corps, Wortzel enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1970. His first assignment with the Army Security Agency took him to Thailand, where he focused on intercepting Chinese military communications in Vietnam and Laos. Within three years he had graduated Infantry Officer Candidate School, as well as both Airborne and Ranger schools. He is a member of the OCS Hall of Fame.

After serving four years as an Army infantry officer, Wortzel shifted to military intelligence, traveling regularly throughout Asia while assigned to the U.S. Pacific Command from 1978 to 1982. He then attended the National University of Singapore where he studied advanced Chinese and did field research in China. Wortzel next worked for the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, developing counterintelligence programs to protect America from foreign espionage and developing technology security programs. For the Army Intelligence and Security Command he managed programs to gather foreign intelligence, which allowed him to travel in Europe, the Middle East and Central America.

From 1988–1990, Wortzel was Assistant Army Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in China, where he witnessed and reported on the Tiananmen Massacre. After assignments as an Army strategist in the Pentagon and as a personnel manager, he returned to China in 1995 as the Army Attaché at the American Embassy in Beijing. In December 1997, Wortzel became a faculty member of the U.S. Army War College, serving as director of the Strategic Studies Institute.

Dr. Wortzel’s books include Class in China: Stratification in a Classless Society (Greenwood Press, 1987); China's Military Modernization: International Implications (Greenwood, 1988); The Chinese Armed Forces in the 21st Century (Carlisle, PA, 1999); and Dictionary of Contemporary Chinese Military History (Greenwood, 1999). He has edited five other books on China and contributed chapters to books on Chinese military history, war-fighting doctrine, and Asia-related strategy issues. He regularly publishes articles on security matters and appears on radio and television broadcasts as an expert on China and policy matters. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Institute of Strategic Studies.

A graduate of the Armed Forces Staff College and the U.S. Army War College, Wortzel earned his B.A. from Columbus College, Georgia, and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Hawaii.