Defense Expert Discusses Future and Current Security Policy

National security expert Michèle A. Flournoy spoke about current and future U.S. national security Wednesday night in the John F. Kennedy, Jr. Forum.

Flournoy is currently the CEO of the Center for a New American Security, a nonpartisan think tank she co-founded in 2007. As Under Secretary of Defense for Policy from 2009 and 2012, she was at the time the highest-ranking woman in the Pentagon’s history.

Flournoy began the event with an overview of her organization, urging the audience to look for ways to participate in public service that stoke their passions. Harvard Kennedy School professor Graham T. Allison ’62, director of the Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, moderated the event.

She also spoke about finding ways to serve that bring out people’s passions and said she was happy to see her think tank not only providing ideas to the government but growing the talent for the next generation of public servants.

In addition, she discussed numerous aspects of national defense, including Syria, military technological advantages, military training, and the importance of a coherent and logic information distribution system within the government.

Audience member Mykola Murskyj, a student at the Kennedy School of Government, said he thought that Flournoy’s ideas about better budgetary planning could improve workflow in federal national security agencies.

“The fact that they would actually know how much money they’re going to have 3 years and 4 months exactly down the road, that will help them significantly in knowing exactly what to buy, where they can afford to spread their resources, where they can afford to just take risk,” he said.

Joshua Cohen, also from the Kennedy School, said it could cut down on wasteful spending.

“That would also prevent... $2,000 office chairs in the Pentagon,” he said.

Allison also opened the floor to audience questions during the event, which addressed topics ranging from drone warfare to the military interest in outer space. Murskyj said he particularly liked Flournoy’s response to a question about autonomous warfare.

“I think it was very important that she said what she did about autonomous weapons systems and the fact that she wants to have a human behind every single one, that decisions to kill are going to be made by humans,” he said. “That’s very important.”

Flournoy ended the discussion by saying that while she is sure everyone in the room hopes for a more peaceful world, she believes there are certain challenges that must be met with a credible threat.