Government Matters

Evacuating 120,000 people from Afghanistan

Hila Hanif, director of Afghanistan strategy and policy at the Defense Department, and Holly Herrera, chief of domestic resettlement at the State Department, recount their experiences helping coordinate the evacuation and resettlement of thousands of Afghan refugees last summer

Leading Covid-19 treatment research at NIH

Dr. H. Clifford Lane, clinical director at NIAID at NIH, discusses Covid treatment guideline development and his work combating AIDS and Ebola

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Learning from Russia’s logistics failures

Mike Watson, associate director of the Center for the Future of Liberal Society at the Hudson Institute, discusses how prepared the United States is for a potential conflict in the Indo-Pacific and what the Defense Department can do now

Wargaming Chinese attack on Taiwan

Becca Wasser, fellow for the Defense Program at the Center for a New American Security and co-lead of its Gaming Lab, describes lessons and recommendations for the Pentagon from an operational wargame simulating a Chinese attack on Taiwan in 2027

Possible impasse on Covid funding

Adam Cancryn, healthcare reporter for Politico Pro, explains the opposing positions of Congress and the White House on Covid-19 response funding going forward and contingency planning that is currently underway

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Christopher Scolese, director of the NRO, discusses the office’s unique mission and history, major space threats, use of commercial satellite imagery, international collaboration, climate monitoring, hiring, the pandemic and the war in Ukraine

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Biden authorizes troop deployment to Somalia

Bill Roggio, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and editor of FDD’s Long War Journal, discusses the threat posed by the Somali terror group al-Shabab and President Biden’s decision to deploy hundreds of troops to the country

Reorganizing NATO for better deterrence

Bruce Ackerman, professor of law and political science at Yale University, discusses the idea of raising a European army and revising the NATO treaty in order to better deter Putin’s aggression

Improving asylum processing procedures

Theresa Cardinal Brown, managing director at the Bipartisan Policy Center, discusses her recommendation for a new strategy at the southern border to reflect changing demographics

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Advocating for global human rights

Scott Busby, deputy assistant secretary of the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor at the State Department, discusses his office’s work in addressing human rights abuses in countries around the world

Reducing reliance on Russian energy

Jeffrey Frankel, professor at Harvard’s Belfer Center and former member of the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers, discusses the effectiveness of various strategies for reducing dependence on Russian oil and gas while also focusing on environmentalism

North Korea’s nuclear capabilities

Dana Kim, Korea policy scholar in the Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, discusses North Korea’s recent missile tests and expansion of its nuclear weapons program

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Biden signs bill to speed arms to Ukraine

Angela Stent, nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, discusses the Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act of 2022, which allows arms lending to Ukraine

Status of Ukraine’s military capabilities

Margarita Konaev, adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, discusses the transformation of Ukraine’s military since 2014, strategy going forward and support from the U.S.

Is the Islamic State on the decline?

Katherine Zimmerman, fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, discusses the persistent terror threat, vulnerable areas around the world and American counterterrorism strategy

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New Army pilot program aims to modernize cavalry design

MG John Richardson, commanding general in the First Cavalry Division in the U.S. Army, discusses a new pilot program to restructure Army divisions and fill cavalry design gaps to prepare for current threats

Monitoring and preventing foreign investments in American technology

David Rader, deputy director of the Office of Foreign Investment Review at DoD, discusses efforts to improve monitoring of foreign investments in American technology to protect national security

NTSB using drones to respond to accident sites

Catherine Gagne, unmanned aircraft system operator at the Office of Aviation Safety at the National Transportation Safety Board, discusses how drones have helped increase efficiency in the NTSB’s work of responding to plane accident sites

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Russians seeking entry to America

Nahal Toosi, senior foreign affairs correspondent for Politico, discusses how many Russians have fled the country since the Ukraine invasion and the administration’s response to those seeking asylum in the U.S.

Understanding AI errors in combat

Kelsey Atherton, military technology journalist at Wars of Future Past, explains some of the major risks and dangers of new artificial intelligence military technology

Would Putin go nuclear?

Seth Cropsey, founder and president of the Yorktown Institute and former deputy under secretary of the Navy, assesses the threat of Russian use of nuclear weapons and the various possible ways the West can respond

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State Department launches cyberspace bureau

Jennifer Bachus, senior bureau official for the Cyberspace and Digital Policy Bureau at the State Department, discusses the purpose of the new bureau, its work on national security, economic policy and human rights related to cyberspace and its collaboration with other countries

High-level government visits to Ukraine

Anne-Marie Slaughter, president and CEO of New America and former director of policy planning for the State Department, discusses what the recent visits of U.S. government officials to Ukraine are accomplishing, whether the U.S. is doing enough to help and how security policy will shift as a result of the war

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Strategic importance of Mariupol

Gen. Wesley Clark (Ret.), senior fellow at UCLA’s Burkle Center for International Relations and former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe, discusses the importance of Mariupol to the Russians and military support Ukraine still needs

Stepping up pressure on Putin

Clay Lowery, executive vice president of research and policy at the Institute of International Finance and former assistant secretary for international affairs at the Treasury Department, discusses the effect sanctions are having on the Russian economy and financial markets

Service to America awards celebrate public service

Jordan LaPier, senior communications manager at the Partnership for Public Service, discusses the Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals, or Sammies, which recognize extraordinary federal employees, and highlights some of this year’s finalists

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