Center for a New American Security

Transitions are times of great opportunity, and the transition to President Obama’s administration has certainly provided many opportunities to the Center for a New American Security.  We are thrilled that President Obama and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates recognized the character, intellect, and energy of our Co-Founder and President, Michèle Flournoy, by appointing her to serve as the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy; having worked closely with Michele for many years, we are confident that the nation’s security will be in very good hands.Many other members of the CNAS family have also been chosen to serve our nation at this critical time.  CNAS Board Member Admiral Dennis Blair is now the Director of National Intelligence, while Board Member Bill Lynn is now the Deputy Secretary of Defense.  Advisory Board Members James Steinberg and Susan Rice now serve as the Deputy Secretary of State and as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, respectively.  We appreciate their service to CNAS, and know that the nation will also benefit from their leadership.

Other CNAS veterans joining the administration include our Chief Operating Officer, Nate Tibbits, now working in Personnel Policy at the White House; Senior Fellow Derek Chollet, now the Deputy Director of Policy Planning at the State Department; Senior Fellow Colin Kahl, the new Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East; and Fellow Vikram Singh, now working on the Afghanistan Task Force.  Part of our mission is to prepare the national security leaders of today and tomorrow; we feel enormously proud that so many members of Team CNAS are now in positions of responsibility for our security.

During this critical period, the mission of CNAS—developing strong, pragmatic, and principled national security and defense policies that promote and protect American values and interests—remains vital to our nation.  We are therefore thrilled to announce that the Honorable Richard Danzig has agreed to serve as Chairman of the Board of CNAS, relieving former Secretary of Defense Bill Perry, who will remain on the board to provide continued counsel and leadership.  R. Nicholas Burns, former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, has also joined the Board of Directors.  With his help, and under Richard’s leadership, CNAS will continue to lead the debate on American national security and defense policy.
On February 13, the CNAS Board of Directors approved the appointment of Dr. John Nagl to serve as the second President of the Center.  John, a retired Army officer, has been a Senior Fellow at CNAS and has helped with the Center’s important work on counterinsurgency and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; he wrote one of the CNAS reports released at our first annual conference, advocating the creation of an Army Advisory Corps. 

At the same meeting, the Board approved the appointment of Nathaniel Fick to serve as the Chief Operating Officer of CNAS.  Nate, author of the New York Times bestseller “One Bullet Away” and a former Marine with combat experience in Iraq and Afghanistan, has been a Fellow at CNAS working on our Afghanistan project; with John, he recently published an influential Foreign Policy article entitled “Counterinsurgency Field Manual: Afghanistan Edition.”

Under the continuing leadership of Kurt Campbell, our Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, the new team will redouble the efforts of the Center to get out in front of the public debate on national, international, and natural security for all Americans.  CNAS will continue to provide strong, principled, pragmatic national security advice to our many friends now serving in government—support when we feel that they are making the right choices, constructive criticism when we disagree.  CNAS will also continue to develop the national security leaders of tomorrow.  The events of the past month demonstrate that we’re doing that pretty well.  We couldn’t be prouder—or more excited about the path ahead!

Sincere thanks for all of your support,