The Shield and the Cloak

With his usual candor, former Senator Gary Hart (D-CO) addressed the issues of security and military strategy -- the same issues he adopted while serving on Capitol Hill and which he explores in his new book The Shield and the Cloak: The Security of the Commons. His provocative remarks, delivered before a packed audience, offered a sobering assessment of America's security climate and a number of proposals to improve it.

Senator Hart -- noting that our Cold War-era military is ill equipped to counter non-state actors or fight low-intensity urban conflicts -- argued for a more comprehensive conception of security than the prevailing one. "The Cold War," he said, "was two dimensional," but our current conflicts are more complicated and they require a deeply nuanced understanding of history if they are to be salvaged. Citing the looming civil war as an example, he warned, "America can lose its army in Iraq."

Senator Hart issued a call to public officials to ramp up military intelligence, make math and science the focus of public education, and mend our alliances with European nations who, he says, are now at the center of a jihadi maelstrom. To underscore the internationalization of threats and the subsequent need for security and intelligence cooperation, he stated, "In 25 years, anyone who says 'national security' will be laughed out of the room."

Participants

• Gary Hart
  Former U.S. Senator and Author, The Shield and the Cloak: The Security of the Commons


• Steven C. Clemons
  Director, American Strategy Program


• Christopher Preble
  Director, Foreign Policy Studies, Cato Institute