11 Items

Secretary of Defense Ash Carter (left) and Philippine Secretary of National Defense Voltaire Gazmin (right) shake hands on a Marine Corps V-22 Osprey as they depart the USS Stennis after touring the aircraft carrier as it sails the South China Sea April 15, 2016.

SMSgt Adrian Cadiz / DoD

Report

Reflections on American Grand Strategy in Asia

| October 2018

To understand how I approached China during my time as Secretary, it’s important to note that I don’t see U.S. strategy in Asia as centered on China at all. I said many times: We don’t have a China policy, we have an Asia policy. The heart of that policy is a mesh of political, diplomatic, economic, and military relationships with many nations that has sustained security and underwritten an extraordinary leap in economic development.

During my time as Secretary, I referred to this structure over and over as the “principled, inclusive network.” Enunciating and reinforcing its strategic and military dimensions in a rapidly changing security environment was my constant priority as Secretary of Defense. Even amid pressing challenges such as the fight against ISIS and the need to confront Russian aggression, no other issue I dealt with had such lasting implications for our national security and prosperity.

My three-word title for this policy was admittedly not very catchy. But my counterparts in the region understood it. They understood that all three words have been essential to its success and will remain essential to its future.

Speech

Jean-Yves Le Drain and Ash Carter in Conversation – September 28, 2018

| Oct. 03, 2018

Former U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter and French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Yves Le Drian speak on the topic “Is Democracy Still Alive?” during a public conversation sponsored by the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and the Project on Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship.

Photo of a man standing in front of a screen showing a TV program image regarding a North Korea's missile launch.

AP

Analysis & Opinions - NPR

Former Secretary Of Defense Ash Carter On North Korea's Latest Missile Launch

| Nov. 30, 2017

Belfer Center Director and former Secretary of Defense Ash Carter was interviewed about North Korea by Robert Siegel on NPR's All Things Considered. Carter said that while U.S. defense systems should stop a North Korean attack, he believes the threat must be met with coercive diplomacy.

Fighters from the Women's Protection Units hold a victory celebration in Paradise Square in Raqqa, Syria on Thursday, October 19, 2017. (AP Photo/Gabriel Chaim)

AP Photo/Gabriel Chaim

Analysis & Opinions - The Atlantic

Ash Carter: Behind the Plan to Defeat ISIS

| Oct. 31, 2017

On December 11, 2016, just before my time as secretary of defense ended, I stepped off a C-130 transport plane onto a cold and dusty patch of northern Iraq that had been on my mind for more than a year: an Iraqi military airfield called Qayyarah West. Q-West was a talisman of progress on one of the defining issues of my service, the fight to defeat ISIS. A year before, General Joe Dunford and I had briefed President Obama on a plan to step up the fight against ISIS.

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Newspaper Article - Harvard Gazette

Fears of National Insecurity

    Author:
  • Christina Pazzanese
| 10/17/2017

From sharply rising tensions with a nuclear North Korea and decertification of the Iran nuclear deal to China’s growing global assertiveness and the State Department pullback from projecting American values, such as democracy and human rights, around the world, the United States faces urgent national security challenges.

In a panel discussion Monday evening at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) moderated by MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, former members of President Obama’s cabinet described what they see as a fraying of alliances, a loss of credibility with allies and enemies, a stepping back as a leader on human rights and democracy, and a relinquishment of diplomacy as a critical component of national security.