Former National Security Advisors Debate the Future of National Security

The Lloyd George Centennial Lecture series continues with a conversation between Ambassador Susan E. Rice (pictured), the Honorable Stephen Hadley, and SFS Professor Charles Kupchan. (Air Force Academy)

The Honorable Stephen Hadley, former National Security Advisor to President George W. Bush, and Ambassador Susan E. Rice, former National Security Advisor to President Barack Obama, discussed the impending future of national security on Wednesday in a conversation moderated by SFS Professor Charles Kupchan.

Setting the tone early, Kupchan asked for an explanation of the “strange political moment we are in within the Western Democracies.” Rice reminded the audience that this is an era unlike any other, even taking into account the isolationism of the 1930s, primarily due to the increasing socioeconomic divisions within American society.  Hadley took a slightly different route, focusing on the American lack of belief in the government. He noted, “We’ve lost confidence in our own ideals, in our commitment to freedom, democracy, and the free market.” With regards to President Trump, Hadley claimed that “[Trump] has been pretty good at being a disruptor-in-chief.”

The conversation quickly turned to China, where both Rice and Hadley emphasized the importance of American identity. This is particularly present, Rice pressed, as “we now have foreign adversaries with the will and the capacity to exploit our divisions and capitalize on them.” She called these divisions “our self-made disability,” and she theorized that it is precisely what Russia and China are aiming to exploit with their actions. Hadley agreed, and when asked if President Donald Trump’s policy of retreat worked, responded with a defiant “No.”

In terms of the current tariff war between the United States and China, there was disagreement between the two. Hadley, who had just gotten back from Beijing, claimed, “The Chinese are stunned, don’t know how to react, and seem to want a deal…. The tariffs were not the solution, but they were a tool to get attention… we have leverage.”

Rice adamantly disagreed, stating, “The approach has been fundamentally flawed. A far wiser strategy in the long term would be to partner with our European allies to multilaterally force China to do what we want as opposed to doing it unilaterally.”

Both remained optimistic about the future of not only national security but of the United States as a whole. Rice noted that the U.S. has “a history of going through periods of profound division, and yet coming out of the whole, and arguably, if not immediately, stronger.” Hadley shared a similar view, offering a simple solution: “We need to reaffirm who we are, look at our basic principles and adapt them to the situation we are in.”

All three were very colloquial in the conversation, even poking fun at their ages throughout.

Hadley served for four years as the National Security Advisor to President George W. Bush from 2005 to 2009. Prior to that, he was Assistant to the President as the Deputy National Security Advisor from 2001 to 2005. He currently is a principal of RiceHadleyGates LLC, an international strategic consulting firm founded alongside Condoleezza Rice, Robert Gates, and Anja Manuel. Hadley is also the Board Chair of the United States Institute of Peace.

Rice served as President Barack Obama’s National Security Advisor and U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations from 2009 to 2017. From 1993 to 2001, she served as the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Special Assistant to the President, and Director for Multilateral Affairs at the National Security Council. She currently is a Distinguished Visiting Research Fellow at American University and a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at Harvard University, while also serving on the boards of Netflix and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

The conversation was a continuation of the Lloyd George Centennial Lecture series on the global order, which will continue throughout the calendar year.