What the Next President Faces: Tectonics

By General Michael Hayden

General Michael V. Hayden is a retired four-star General in the United States Air Force; he served as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency from 2006-2009 and as Director of the National Security Agency from 1999-2005.

I was recently asked what I would tell a Presidential nominee or a President-elect to most worry about in today’s world. It was kind of a “what keeps you awake at night” question.

While forming an answer, my mind (probably reflecting the operational environment of my last CIA post) gravitated toward hot-button issues like a North Korean nuclear program run amok; the weaknesses in the Iran nuclear deal and Iran’s unhinged aggressiveness since the agreement; Vladimir Putin’s seemingly unchecked adventurism; China’s threatening sand castles in the South China Sea; or the immediate dangers of a cyber or terrorist attack.

“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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