Leadership, alliances and speed were key themes stressed by former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta as he shared deeply-informed perspectives and concerns on current events and national security during a 90 minute presentation and Q&A at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) in the latest Secretary of the Navy Guest Lecture (SGL), Oct. 8.
With decades of public service, Panetta offered frank advice and lessons learned to the more than 1,300 students, faculty and staff gathered in the packed NPS King Hall auditorium.
“Fundamental to everything our democracy stands for is leadership, and that requires character, integrity, and courage,” said Panetta. “Those qualities are abundant in this room, and being selected to come to NPS further sets you apart. When you graduate, you will carry the additional obligation to do more, take risks, make hard decisions and lead solutions to complex national defense challenges if we're going to remain the world’s strongest democracy.”
In his opening comments, Panetta stressed the importance of alliances in addressing today’s conflicts, and terrorism instigated and supported by a growing axis of autocracies lead by China, Russia, Iran and North Korea.
“Our adversaries are actively working to undermine trust,” Panetta remarked. “When our nation is distracted, tyrants will fill the void. The leader’s job is not to point fingers, but to point out falsehoods and elevate reality so we can agree on the problem, then work together to address it. Across the aisle, or across alliances, that’s how leaders get things done. That’s how we win.”
The “Fireside Chat” was moderated by retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Eric Wendt, a former Special Forces Green Beret and current professor of practice in the school’s Department of Defense Analysis, and an NPS distinguished alumnus. When asked the one thing he would do to improve DOD today, Panetta responded, “There are many things, but the one thing I am most concerned about is speed.”
“We need DOD bureaucracy to move at the speed of technology,” added Panetta. “I’m concerned that we can’t act swiftly enough to ensure our advantage by leveraging and learning about cutting edge technologies. Industry is setting the pace, and much of it is American innovation, but we need to apply innovative thinking to how we acquire, adapt and adopt technology to meet capability needs. I believe NPS and the future Naval Innovation Center at NPS are parts of the solution.”
During his visit, Panetta also spoke with Defense Analysis students in the DA 3900 Command and Leadership course taught by Wendt, where he further encouraged students to apply their operational experience, NPS education and research to solving the most vexing challenges facing DOD.
Before leading the DOD, Panetta served as a member of the United States House of Representatives, director of the Office of Management and Budget, White House Chief of Staff, and as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Today, Panetta co-directs with his wife, Sylvia, the Panetta Institute for Public Policy, based at California State University, Monterey Bay. The Institute is a nonpartisan, not-for-profit center that seeks to instill in young men and women the virtues and values of public service.
- For more information on the Secretary of the Navy Guest Lecture program at NPS, and to watch past lectures, visit https://nps.edu/sgls
- Learn more about the NPS Department of Defense Analysis at https://nps.edu/web/da
