News - WestExec Advisors

Bridge Colby writes in National Review: “A Republican Foreign Policy”

"The United States needs a new framework for thinking about its role in the world. And this need is especially pressing for American conservatives. We are entering a world in which the dominant foreign-policy paradigms of the post–Cold War years are of little to no help, and are often downright harmful. "This is as true on the right as on the left. In the post-1989 world, with American power unchallenged, many on the right were tempted by breathtakingly expansive aims little [...]

Rebecca Skoryanc2019-12-13T07:33:54-05:00December 5, 2019|News|

Lisa Monaco on CNN’s Impeachment Watch podcast, “The Public Hearings Are Over. Did Democrats Make Their Case?”

"Democrats have essentially rested their case to the American people that President Trump should be impeached. Will it change any minds among Republicans in the House or Senate? And how is President Trump handling all this? Zachary Wolf, senior writer and publisher of the Impeachment Watch Newsletter, discusses the 'never Trumpers' rhetoric the President is pushing with CNN reporter and producer Marshall Cohen. Lisa Moncao, CNN senior national security analyst, also joins the conversation to offer her perspective, as a former [...]

Rebecca Skoryanc2019-12-02T07:49:17-05:00November 22, 2019|News|

Julie Smith quoted in The Washington Post article, “Public Servants Use Impeachment Hearings to Offer Lessons of History and Military Service in Rejoinder to Trump”

"'What we’ve seen over the last couple of days is a whole assortment of personal and compelling reasons why people chose the career path of public service,' said Julie Smith, a Europe expert who served as deputy national security adviser to then-Vice President Joe Biden. 'Outside of Washington, the image of public service has become a bad word — a bunch of dark suits who are there for the wrong reasons. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Most are idealists [...]

Rebecca Skoryanc2019-12-02T07:46:02-05:00November 21, 2019|News|

Miriam Vogel quoted in Architectural Digest article, “The Gender Bias Behind Voice Assistants”

"... UNESCO argues that if people do, in fact, prefer the female-sounding helper, it’s mainly because we’ve been conditioned to feel more comfortable making requests of women. But by not questioning this conditioning, says Miriam Vogel, executive director of Equal AI, a nonprofit formed to address and reduce unconscious bias in the field of artificial intelligence, 'we’re teaching our next generation to double down on those stereotypes.' "...Vogel likes Q but thinks the fix isn’t quite that simple, because un-gendering AI [...]

Rebecca Skoryanc2019-11-08T15:41:10-05:00November 5, 2019|News|

Michèle Flournoy quoted in POLITICO article on Ukraine assistance

“Michèle Flournoy, who served as the undersecretary of defense for policy under Obama, said that withdrawing assistance would provide serious leverage over Ukraine. “‘They’re counting on the U.S. to continue to support them in all kinds of ways — sanctions, diplomacy, military assistance, training and advising, putting pressure on Putin,’ she said. ‘So any sign that the U.S. is pulling back from Ukraine sends a signal that can be disproportionate…’” Read the full article here: Full Article

Rebecca Skoryanc2019-10-10T18:42:05-04:00September 27, 2019|News|

Liz Rosenberg quoted in The Wall Street Journal article, “New U.S. Sanctions on Iran Set Back French Mediation Efforts”

“Tying Iran’s oil sales so directly to those groups will act as a further deterrent to anyone still involved in Iranian oil exports, including tankers, the insurance industry, brokers, banks and even ship captains, analysts said. “'It is clearly meant to tarnish Iran’s image and oil sales by linking it to support for terrorism and regional destabilization,' said Elizabeth Rosenberg, a former top Treasury sanctions official now a senior fellow at the Center for New American Security..." Read the full article [...]

Rebecca Skoryanc2019-09-19T14:26:05-04:00September 4, 2019|Economy & Trade, News|

Miriam Vogel writes in The Hill: “Making Equitable Access to Credit A Reality in The Age of Algorithms”

"Last week we saw yet another reminder of the ways algorithms will perpetuate historical bias if left unchecked and unrestrained. The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) proposed rule released Monday announced the intent to reduce key protections afforded to consumers under the Fair Housing Act. The new rule would revise the HUD interpretation of Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 to eliminate the disparate impact standard, which prohibits policies or procedures that appear to be neutral [...]

Rebecca Skoryanc2019-09-09T15:37:52-04:00August 30, 2019|News|

Liz Rosenberg quoted in NPR article, “Iran Under Sanctions: A Scramble for Cancer Care and Blame to Go Around”

"'There are so many sanctions and they are so complex and they cover so many entities in Iran, especially in the financial sector, it's very difficult to find legal, viable, credible, efficient business counterparts in Iran for international businesses to do business with,' says Elizabeth Rosenberg, a former Treasury Department sanctions official. "Even if Western companies do find Iranian business and banking counterparts, Rosenberg says, there's no telling what can happen along the supply chain. 'Now most of the big [Iranian] [...]

Rebecca Skoryanc2019-09-03T16:53:47-04:00August 24, 2019|Economy & Trade, News|

Danny Russel quoted in The Straits Times article, “Trump’s China Strategy Counterproductive, Says Former Top US Diplomat for Asia Pacific”

"‘For retaliation to be smart it needs to be applied in a targeted and judicious manner for the purpose not of inflicting pain but to change behaviour,' [Daniel Russel] said. 'And you can't claim that Trump's retaliatory measures - the tariffs, the threats, the listing of companies like Huawei - have led to better behaviour by China.' "‘On the contrary [China has] dug itself in more determinedly,' Mr. Russel said. 'The Trump administration has not been able to close any deal, [...]

Rebecca Skoryanc2019-09-03T17:32:01-04:00August 22, 2019|Economy & Trade, Geopolitical Perspectives, News|

Michèle Flournoy quoted in Foreign Policy article, “Women Look to 2020 to Break the National Security Glass Ceiling”

"Michèle Flournoy is one of the most recognizable names in U.S. national security policy today, one often floated as a candidate to be the first female secretary of defense. But Flournoy says it will take more than one woman cracking the glass ceiling to change the role of women at the top of the field. “'We had a women’s leaders' lunch in the Clinton administration in the Pentagon on the civilian side, and like eight of us had lunch together very [...]

Rebecca Skoryanc2019-08-26T15:55:20-04:00August 21, 2019|News|