- Event on April 25 in Washington, DC with President Clinton brought together public and private sector leaders who served in his Administration to speak about the national security and peacekeeping accomplishments of the Clinton Administration and how it created a strong foundation to address today’s most pressing challenges.
- Participants included Former Deputy Secretary of Defense Rudy DeLeon, Former Secretary of the Army Louis Caldera, Former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Michèle Flournoy, and Former Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick.
- Convening organized by the Cohen Group and Project 42 which celebrates President Clinton’s legacy and record through events with the former president, alumni and department-specific reunions, policy conferences, and more.
Washington — Last week, leaders from across the public and private sectors gathered to reflect on key successes from the Clinton Administration’s national security policy, global strategic alliances, and peace keeping efforts — and how they apply to today’s challenges.
At a convening hosted by President Clinton and the Clinton Foundation, and held in partnership with sponsors Secretary Willian Cohen and the Cohen Group, alumni from the Department of Defense, Department of State, National Security Council and the White House gathered at the Willard Hotel.
Some of the Clinton Administration alumni in attendance included Louis Caldera, Senior Lecturer, Harvard Business School; Rudy DeLeon, Senior Fellow, National Security and International Policy, American Progress; Thomas Donilon, Chairman, BlackRock Investment Institute; Michèle Flournoy, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, WestExec Advisors; Eric Fanning, President and CEO, Aerospace Industries Association; Sherri Goodman, Vice Chair, Secretary of State’s International Security Advisory Board; Jamie Gorelick, Partner, WilmerHale; William Lynn, CEO, Leonardo DRS; Mack McLarty, Chairman, McLarty Associates; Mara Rudman, James R. Schlesinger Distinguished Professor, Miller Center, University of Virginia; James “Jim” Steinberg, Dean, School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University; Kevin Thurm, CEO, Clinton Foundation; Bob Tyrer, Co-Chief Executive Officer of the Cohen Group, and Laura Marcus, Managing Director, Project 42, Clinton Foundation.
In remarks and panel discussions, officials reflected on the unique moment following the Cold War when President Clinton was elected and the subsequent Post-Cold War policy created by the administration.
“President Clinton had this voracious intellectual curiosity about the world and this encyclopedic understanding of the complexities, the problems, the challenges, the solutions,” said Louis Caldera, who served as Secretary of the Army under President Clinton. “It meant that he could think on a very different level about what the challenges were and have a vision for how we could make the country stronger, better, more just, more equal, also playing a more significant role on the world stage. And this post Cold War era created so many of those opportunities.”
In the wake of a post-Cold War era, the Department of Defense built a new military strategy while also ensuring our armed forces were strong and ready in a new global environment, said moderator Michèle Flournoy, who served as Under Secretary of Defense for Policy for the administration. The Department’s framework supported the army’s reshaping of a more deployable, adjustable force and proved resilient for years to come.
“It had all the factors for transformation,” Former Secretary of the Army Eric Fanning said about the Clinton administration’s push for military change . “The dissolution of an adversary..budgetary pressures… innovative leaders in the army and uniform and civilian leaders — and a recognition that the last time the army had gone to war, while it was successful, it had taken months to get the army there in the first Gulf War. And so all these things factored to a realization in the right time to transform the army and make a change.”
Officials reflected on the administration’s efforts to create strategic alliances to address global challenges as we entered a new era of foreign policy. “We worked through international institutions the best that we could. We developed an approach to economic management rooted in globalization and open markets…There was a tremendous amount of positive that got done in the world over the 20 something year period since the Clinton administration,” said Tom Donilon, who served as chief of staff and as Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs during the administration.
The department of defense also played a key role in prioritizing key issues like the environment and women’s representation in the Pentagon.
The administration’s prioritization of women’s representation changed both foreign policy and the military itself. By rescinding the Risk Rule in 1994, for example, President Clinton ensured that women could serve in all positions in the military except for direct ground combat roles.
“I mean the number of women in this room is a good piece of evidence of the changes that the Clinton administration made led by Secretary Sheila Woodall, secretary of the Air Force,” said Jamie Gorelick, Former United States Deputy Attorney General. “It was very nice to be in a room where you weren’t the only woman and particularly not the only woman speaking with a degree of authority.”
The closing of various military bases in California presented the Clinton administration with the opportunity to pay closer attention to community needs during disposal and clean up, said Sherri Goodman, who served as Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Environmental Security.
“The environment was not mainstream in defense planning and policy and in [the] Pentagon when we arrived in 93,” said Sherri Goodman,“[President] Clinton led the way on this…He said, ‘Okay, we’re going to have community focused, job-centered property disposal, and we’re going to take care of fast track cleanup.’”