Combating Catastrophic Terror

A Security Strategy for the Nation

October 26, 2005, 12:30pm – 2:00am

About This Event

The United States needs a comprehensive long-term strategy to fight the greatest threat to the American people: violent extremists who, often in the name of Islam, seek to use catastrophic terror to achieve their goals. Is America ready for this threat? Specifically, do we have the right policies and structures in place to fight terrorism and to secure the homeland? Are we on the right track or the wrong track when it comes to this key national security challenge? A panel of experts will present and discuss Combating Catastrophic Terror A Security Strategy for the Nation, a new report that provides answers to these questions and sets out a comprehensive, integrated approach to the greatest threat Americans face. The report was formed in response to requests from Congressional leaders and came together over several months. It offers members of Congress and officials at the local, state and national levels a clear understanding of the threat and the stakes -- and specific recommendations for a new counterterrorism strategy.

Featuring:

Susan Rice, Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, and former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs (1997-2001)

Rand Beers, President, Valley Forge Initiative; former Counterterrorism Adviser on the National Security Council (1988-1998, 2002-2003); and former Assistant Security of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (1998-2003)

Shibley Telhami, Anwar Sadat Chair for Peace and Development, University of Maryland, and Senior Fellow, the Saban Center, The Brookings Institution

Moderated by:

John D. Podesta, President and CEO, The Center for American Progress Action Fund, and former White House Chief of Staff (1998-2001)

Location

Center for American Progress
1333 H St. NW
Washington, DC 20005

Resources

Resources

•Video:  Panel
•Report:  Combating Catastrophic Terror
•Transcript:  Event Transcript

Biographies

Rand Beers is President of the Valley Forge Initiative. He is a former Counterterrorism Adviser who served on the National Security Council under U.S. Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush. He also served as Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs under both President Clinton and President George W. Bush. Beers resigned from the NSC in March 2003 and joined the presidential campaign of John Kerry, serving as the National Security Advisor to the Kerry-Edwards 2004 campaign. He is also an Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard University. Beers is a graduate of Dartmouth College, and served in a U.S. Marine Corps rifle company in Vietnam.

John D. Podesta is the President and CEO of the Center for American Progress Action Fund and visiting Professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Center. Podesta served as Chief of Staff to President William J. Clinton from October 1998 until January 2001, where he was responsible for directing Congressional relations and staff activities of the White House. He coordinated the work of cabinet agencies with a particular emphasis on the development of federal budget and tax policy, and served in the President's Cabinet and as a Principal on the National Security Council. Podesta has also held a number of positions on Capitol Hill including: Counselor to Democratic Leader Senator Thomas A. Daschle; Chief Minority Counsel for the Senate Judiciary Subcommittees on Patents, Copyrights, and Trademarks, and Security and Terrorism; and Counsel on the Majority Staff of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Podesta is a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center and Knox College.

Dr. Susan Rice is Senior Fellow in the Foreign Policy Studies Program at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., where she is examining the national security implications of global poverty and inequality. She also works on related issues, including transnational security threats, failed states, post conflict peace-building, UN peace operations, and new strategies for corporate social responsibility investing. Dr. Rice served as U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs from 1997-2001. From 1995-1997, Dr. Rice was Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for African Affairs at the National Security Council (NSC) and, from 1993-1995, was Director for International Organizations and Peacekeeping at the NSC. Prior to her White House tenure, Rice was a management consultant at McKinsey and Company, where she served clients in the oil and gas, steel, transportation, retail, public/non-governmental and pulp/paper sectors. Dr. Rice received a B.A. in History from Stanford University and her M.Phil. and D.Phil. (Ph.D)degrees in International Relations from Oxford University, where she was a Rhodes Scholar.

Dr. Shibley Telhami is the Anwar Sadat Professor for Peace and Development at the University of Maryland, College Park, and is a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. Before coming to the University of Maryland, he was Associate Professor of Government and Director of the Near Eastern Studies Program at Cornell University and a Visiting Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center. Among his publications are Power and Leadership in International Bargaining: The Path to the Camp David Accords (Columbia University Press, 1990); International Organizations and Ethnic Conflict , edited with Milton Esman (Cornell University Press, 1995); Identity and Foreign Policy in the Middle East, edited with Michael Barnett (Cornell University Press, 2002); and numerous articles on international politics and Middle Eastern affairs. Besides his academic activities, Professor Telhami has been active in the foreign policy arena and has been a contributor to the Washington Post, the New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times. While a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow, he served as advisor to the United States delegation to the United Nations during the Iraq-Kuwait crisis, and was on the staff of Congressman Lee Hamilton. In addition, he is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a member of the advisory committee of Human Rights Watch/Middle East. He also has a weekly radio commentary that broadcasts all over the Middle East. He was appointed by the White House to the Board of the United States Institute of Peace.