"Michèle Flournoy, former Under Secretary of Defense of Policy, reflects on recent escalations between U.S. and Iran with former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers and Roger Ferguson, TIAA chief executive officer..." Watch the full interview here: Full Interview
"'From one tweet to the next, from one day to the next, you never know what he's going to say or what his approach will be. And I think for adversaries who are trying to figure out where the line is, it's very difficult to establish deterrence for them. For allies, it makes them very uncertain.' "... Flournoy says Trump's approach isn't strategic—it's tactical, transactional, impulsive. "'I actually think [Trump's] an interesting mix of, on the one hand, wanting to appear [...]
"'Since there were no casualties, President Trump seems to be taking the opportunity to say this is the end of this round. That’s a hopeful sign, (but) it doesn’t mean this is the end of this conflict,' said Daniel Shapiro, who was the U.S. ambassador to Israel between 2011 and 2017. "He warned that the supposed a deescalation in tensions could be 'fragile.' “'It’s very likely that the Iranian response to the death of Qasem Soleimani will play out over weeks, [...]
“'The focus on immigration to me has meant the senior leadership could not possibly have as much of an in-depth feel for the terrorism and counterterrorism set of issues,' Nicholas Rasmussen, former director of the National Counterterrorism Center who worked on the issue under the last three administrations, said in an interview. 'When you get into crisis mode, you can’t just acquire that experience.' "Rasmussen and some former DHS officials and security specialists applauded aspects of the department’s response, however, pointing [...]
"'The fact that there were no casualties gives President Trump the opportunity to throw the circuit breaker on this particular cycle of escalation,' ex-Under Sec. of Defense for Policy Michèle Flournoy says after Iran attacked Iraqi bases housing US troops..." Watch the full interview here: Full Interview
"Former U.S. Deputy National Security Adviser Antony Blinken says he suspects Iranians will look for other ways to exact a cost on the US for the killing of Soleimani..." Watch the full interview here: Full Interview
"One of the most dramatic consequences of killing Iranian Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani is unfolding at a rapid pace: the severing of ties between the United States and Iraq. There is still time to salvage this most critical relationship, but doing so will depend on the willingness and ability of the Trump administration to change the tone of the conversation in very short order. The current U.S. approach—calling for sanctions against Iraq if it demands the exit of American forces—risks [...]
“‘The whole question of are we leaving Iraq or not speaks to absence of a normal, rigorous [National Security Council] co-ordination process [and] lack of any consideration of the second or third order effects,’ said Michèle Flournoy, a former senior Pentagon official under Barack Obama, now at WestExec, an advisory firm in Washington...” Read the full article here: Full Article
"Michèle A. Flournoy, a former under secretary of defense under President Barack Obama who turned down a chance to serve as deputy defense secretary for Mr. Trump, said the chaotic nature of the current foreign policy stemmed from an 'impulsive, inconsistent' president without a functional national security process that would ensure that 'second- and third-order consequences' were fully considered. "There is 'no real strategy or shared framework,' she said, 'so tactical decisions are made in a vacuum or untethered from broader [...]
"Marco Werman spoke with Michèle Flournoy, former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, to understand the details of the decision-making process that lead to Soleimani's death..." Read the full transcript here: Full Transcript