Climate Change and National Security
March 6th, 2019 3:00PM -4:00PM
Join us for a roundtable discussion on Climate Change and National Security with Governor Jay Inslee, Brigadier General Stephen A. Cheney, Admiral William Fallon, and Governor Christine Todd Whitman.
The event, which is free and open to the public, will be moderated by University of Washington Provost Mark Richards with opening remarks by Reşat Kasaba, Director of the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington.
No registration is required.
About Speakers
Governor Jay Inslee is a fifth-generation Washingtonian who has lived and worked on both sides of the Cascades. He grew up in the Seattle area where his father, Frank, was a high school teacher and coach. His mother worked as a sales clerk at Sears & Roebuck. Jay worked his way through college and graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in economics before earning his law degree at Willamette University. He and his wife, Trudi, then moved to Selah, a small town near Yakima where they raised their three sons. Jay worked as an attorney and prosecutor.
Jay and Trudi are now proud grandparents to three active little Inslees. Besides writing and illustrating books for his grandchildren and sketching scenes from around Washington, Jay is an avid cyclist and charter member of Hoopaholics, a youth basketball academy.
Jay first became involved in public service in 1985 when he and Trudi helped lead the effort to build a new public high school in Selah. Motivated to fight against proposed funding cuts for rural schools, Jay went on to represent the 14th Legislative District in the state House of Representatives. He continued serving communities in the Yakima Valley when he was elected to Congress in 1992. The Inslees later moved back to the Puget Sound area where Jay was elected to Congress in 1998, serving until 2012 when he was elected governor. He was re-elected in 2016.
Brigadier General Stephen Cheney, USMC (Ret) is the Chief Executive Officer of the American Security Project (ASP). He is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and has over 30 years experience as a Marine. His career included a wide variety of command and staff positions with the operating forces and the supporting establishment. Gen. Cheney’s primary specialty was artillery, but he focused extensively on entry-level training, commanding at every echelon at both Marine Corps Recruit Depots, to include being the Commanding General at Parris Island. He served several years in Japan and has traveled extensively throughout the Middle East and Asia.
Other selected highlights of Gen. Cheney’s military career include tours as Deputy Executive Secretary to Defense Secretaries Cheney and Aspin; ground plans officer for Drug Enforcement Policy in the Pentagon; liaison to the Congressional Commission on Roles and Missions of the Armed Forces; and Inspector General of the Marine Corps.
Following retirement from the Marines, Gen. Cheney became the Chief Operating Officer for Business Executives for National Security (BENS), in Washington, D.C., and most recently was President/CEO of the Marine Military Academy in Harlingen, Texas.
Gen. Cheney is a graduate of the Marine Corps Command and Staff College, the National War College, and the University of Southern California. He was a military fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City, where he is a member. Additionally, he was also a member of the Secretary of State’s International Security Advisory Board and the Department of State’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board.
Admiral William J. Fallon retired from the U.S. Navy after a distinguished 40 year career of military and strategic leadership. He has led U.S. and Allied forces in eight separate commands and played a leadership role in military and diplomatic matters at the highest levels of the U.S. government.
As head of U.S. Central Command, Admiral Fallon directed all U.S. military operations in the Middle East, Central Asia and Horn of Africa, focusing on combat efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. He led the U.S. Pacific Command for two years, directing political-military activities in the Asia-Pacific region. His achievements include a resumption of military engagement with China, new outreach to India, a new agreement on a strategic framework with Japan, and humanitarian assistance to the victims of the 2004 Tsunami in SE Asia. He also served as Presidential Envoy to Japan, handling bi-lateral relations after the collision of a U.S. submarine and a Japanese fishing vessel.
On September 11, 2001, Admiral Fallon was serving in the Pentagon as Vice Chief of the Navy. He personally directed the recovery of the Navy staff in the wake of the attack and led in the planning of the retaliatory attacks on Al Qaeda and Taliban forces in Afghanistan. He later commanded the U.S. Atlantic Fleet and U.S. Fleet Forces Command, with responsibility for the readiness of U.S. Naval forces worldwide.
Admiral Fallon began his Navy career as a combat aviator flying from an aircraft carrier during the Vietnam War and participated in many vital U.S. military operations during the Cold War. He led a Carrier Air Wing in combat during the Gulf War of 1991, and commanded a Navy Battle Group and the U.S. 6th Fleet Battle Force during NATO military operations in Bosnia.
Admiral Fallon completed a year as a Robert E. Wilhelm Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Center for International Studies and currently chairs the Center’s Advisory Board. He also serves on the Global Affairs Advisory Board of Occidental College and the Advisory Board of the University of California, San Diego School of International Relations and Pacific Studies. He is a graduate of Villanova University, the U.S. Naval War College, the National War College, and has an MA in International Studies from Old Dominion University.
Chairman and CEO of a new company in the cyber security business, Admiral Fallon is a partner and advisor to several other businesses and a Distinguished Fellow at the Center for Naval Analyses. He has been a member of the Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the U.S. and also serves as Co-Chair of the Center for Strategic and International Studies Commission on Smart Global Health Policy and Co-Chair of the National Association of Corporate Directors 2009 Blue Ribbon Commission.
Christine Todd Whitman is the President of The Whitman Strategy Group (WSG), a consulting firm that specializes in energy and environmental issues. WSG offers a comprehensive set of solutions to problems facing businesses, organizations, and governments; they have been at the forefront of helping leading companies find innovative solutions to environmental challenges.
She is also co-chair of the Republican Leadership Council (RLC), which she founded with Senator John Danforth. The RLC’s mission is to support fiscally conservative, socially tolerant candidates and to reclaim the word Republican. She is the author of a New York Times best seller called “It’s My Party Too”, which was published in January of 2005 and released in paperback in March 2006.
Governor Whitman served in the cabinet of President George W. Bush as Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency from January of 2001 until June of 2003. She was the 50th Governor of the State of New Jersey, serving as its first woman governor from 1994 until 2001.
As Governor, Christie Whitman earned praise from both Republicans and Democrats for her commitment to preserve a record amount of New Jersey land as permanent green space. She was also recognized by the Natural Resources Defense Council as having instituted the most comprehensive beach monitoring system in the nation. As EPA Administrator, she promoted common-sense environmental improvements such as watershed-based water protection policies. She championed regulations requiring non-road diesel engines to reduce sulfur emissions by more than 95 percent. Under her tenure, the Agency established the first federal program to promote redevelopment and reuse of “brownfields”, that is, previously contaminated industrial sites.
Governor Whitman serves on a number of non-profit organizations including the Board of Trustees’ Executive Committee of the Eisenhower Fellowships as well as Chair of their Executive Committee, and the Board of Directors of the Council on Foreign Relations. She was also the Co-Chair for the Council on Foreign Relations’ Task Force, More Than Humanitarianism: A Strategic U.S. Approach Toward Africa, as well as the Aspen Health Stewardship Project, which was released in February of 2008. She co-chairs Clean and Safe Energy (CASE) with Dr. Patrick Moore and is a member of the board of directors of the American Security Project.
Governor Whitman also serves on the Board of Directors of S.C. Johnson and Son, Inc., Texas Instruments Inc., and United Technologies Corporation. She currently serves as an advisor to the Aspen Rodel Fellowship program. Prior to becoming Governor, she was the President of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities and served on the Somerset County board of Chosen Freeholders. Governor Whitman holds a BA from Wheaton College in Norton, MA, and is married to John R. Whitman. They have two children and three grandchildren.
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