James Clapper, former Director of National Intelligence
August 29, 2018
Jim Clapper is one of the finest intelligence minds of the 21st century. From 2010 until 2017, he served as the fourth-ever Director of National Intelligence, the nation’s top intelligence official and the principal intelligence advisor to the president. He provided the President Obama’s daily morning brief and held one of the broadest portfolios in the entire government, overseeing 200,000 intelligence employees internationally, a $52 billion budget, and high-profile organizations like the CIA, NSA, and FBI.
Director Clapper is a retired Air Force Lieutenant General who served two tours in Southeast Asia. He brings 50 plus years of military and intelligence experience to discussions regarding the unprecedented breadth of challenges facing the U.S. today—including transnational threats like terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, and cyber attacks, as well as the domestic threats posed by nation states like Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran. He is the author of a new book, Facts and Fears: Hard Truths from a Life in Intelligence.
While a majority of Director Clapper’s accomplishments remain shrouded in classification, notable public achievements include improving communication amongst domestic agencies, building partnerships with foreign governments, procurement reform, and sweeping IT upgrades. Director Clapper was in the Situation Room during the famous 2011 raid on Osama bin Laden and also played a pivotal role in uncovering the likely parties at work behind the 2016 hack of the DNC. He has been praised by Senator John McCain for providing "steady leadership for the Intelligence Community and wise counsel to the President and the Congress."
Director Clapper is the former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency under President George H.W. Bush, Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency under President George W. Bush, and the first Director of Defense Intelligence within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
There is great uncertainty among our allies about our long-term leadership role. When people are in trouble and they call for help, they don’t call for Russia or China or some other country, they call for us.
Gen. Michael Hayden, former CIA and NSA director
May 15, 2018
General Michael Hayden is a retired four-star general who served as director of the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency when the course of world events was changing at a rapid rate. As head of the country’s premier intelligence agencies, he was on the front lines of global change, the war on terrorism, and the growing cyber challenge. He understands the dangers, risks, and potential rewards of the political, economic, and security situations facing us.
General Hayden dissects hot spots around the world, analyzing the tumultuous global environment, the impact of the recent US election and what it all means for Americans and America’s interests. He speaks on the delicate balance between liberty and security in intelligence work, as well the potential benefits and dangers associated with the cyber domain. As the former head of two multi-billion dollar enterprises, he can also address the challenges of managing complex organizations in times of stress and risk, and the need to develop effective internal and external communications.
In addition to leading CIA and NSA, General Hayden was the country’s first principal deputy director of national intelligence and the highest-ranking military intelligence officer in the country. In all of these jobs, he worked to put a human face on American intelligence, explaining to the American people the role of espionage in protecting both American security and American liberty. Hayden also served as commander of the Air Intelligence Agency and Director of the Joint Command and Control Warfare Center and served in senior staff positions at the Pentagon, at U.S. European Command, at the National Security Council, and the U.S. Embassy in Bulgaria. He was also the deputy chief of staff for the United Nations Command and U.S. Forces in South Korea.
Hayden has been a frequent expert and commentator on major news outlets and in top publications, valued for his expertise on intelligence matters like cybersecurity, government surveillance, geopolitics, and more. He was featured in the HBO documentary Manhunt, which looked at espionage through the eyes of the insiders who led the secret war against Osama bin Laden, and in Showtime’s The Spymasters, a detailed look at the directors of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Hayden is currently a principal at the Chertoff Group and a distinguished visiting professor at the George Mason University Schar School of Policy and Government. He is on the board of directors of Motorola Solutions and serves on a variety of other boards and consultancies. In 2013, the Intelligence and National Security Alliance (INSA) awarded Hayden the 29th annual William Oliver Baker Award. General Hayden is also the first recipient of the Helms Award presented by the CIA Officers’ Memorial Foundation. In 2014 he was the inaugural Humanitas visiting professor in intelligence studies at Oxford University in the United Kingdom. His 2016 memoir, Playing to the Edge: American Intelligence in the Age of Terror, was a New York Times best-seller and was selected as one of the 100 most notable books of 2016.
That structure we have used to sustain world order since World War Two is dying because the structure we used to establish it – the industrial society – is going away. What do the Americans now view to be their role? That’s the grand debate.