U.S. Policy to Counter Violent Extremism is Incoherent

Posted: April 27th, 2017

By Michael Leiter

Michael Leiter is a partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, where he heads the firm’s CFIUS and national security practice. He represents clients in a broad range of transactions, investigations and incidents involving U.S. national security. Mr. Leiter also co-leads the firm’s cybersecurity practice and has an additional focus on aerospace and defense mergers and acquisitions, and government relations and investigations. Prior to joining Skadden, served as the President of the Defense Group at Leidos (LDOS), a Fortune 500 technology company based in Reston, Virginia. In this role Mike led more than 8,000 personnel providing mission critical technology, solutions, and support to the U.S. Department of Defense and allied nations around the world. In addition, he served as Executive Vice President and Head of Integration for the merger of Leidos and Lockheed Martin’s Information Systems & Global Solutions (IS&GS), as the Executive Vice President for Business Development, Strategy, M&A, and Government Affairs, and the company’s Chief Strategy Officer. Mike served in several senior national security positions in the federal government, to include as the Director of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) from 2007 until 2011 for both Presidents Bush and Obama. Prior to NCTC, Mike helped establish the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, where he served as the organization’s first Deputy Chief of Staff. He currently serves as an advisor to organizations inside and outside of government, to include as the current Chair of the RAND Corporation’s Board of Trustees.

The Cipher Brief’s Bennett Seftel spoke with Michael Leiter, former Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, about U.S. government efforts to counter violent extremism. Leiter says that instead of debating the name of the program, officials should focus on creating a single department charged with leading initiatives to counter violent extremism.

The Cipher Brief: In February, reports emerged that Trump administration officials were considering changing the name of the U.S. government’s “Countering Violent Extremism” program to “Countering Radical Islamic Extremism.” How does this program work and what could this change mean?

“The Cipher Brief has become the most popular outlet for former intelligence officers; no media outlet is even a close second to The Cipher Brief in terms of the number of articles published by formers.” —Sept. 2018, Studies in Intelligence, Vol. 62

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