Rebecca Skoryanc, Author at WestExec Advisors

Mike Singh quoted in Arab News article, “WHO’s to Blame? World Health Organization Under Scrutiny Over Its Handling of Coronavirus”

"Michael Singh, managing director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said there was a firm consensus in the US capital that China failed to act on early indications of a brewing outbreak, and even took steps to suppress the information. “'While other governments were also slow in marshaling their responses, China’s failure is singular in that it may have cost the world the chance to avert this pandemic altogether by halting the virus spread before it began,' he told [...]

Rebecca Skoryanc2020-04-24T10:55:41-04:00April 17, 2020|Geopolitical Perspectives|

Dennis Ross quoted in the Jerusalem Post article, “Will U.S. Presidential Candidates Care About the Middle East Peace Process?”

“'[Middle East policy] will not figure prominently,' Dennis Ross, a former special assistant to president Barack Obama, and now William Davidson Distinguished Fellow at The Washington Institute, told the Post. 'COVID-19 and the economic realities will be the preoccupation [of this election cycle],' he predicted. “'Foreign policy, in general, will factor in, as it relates to getting broader control over the virus and the prospects for economic recovery,' he noted. 'Demand for oil will remain depressed, reducing the public’s interest in [...]

Rebecca Skoryanc2020-04-24T11:13:50-04:00April 17, 2020|Geopolitical Perspectives|

Lisa Monaco interviewed on CBS News’ Intelligence Matters podcast

"[I]f I were still in my old seat today, I would've expected to see intelligence about what our intelligence community was seeing emerging out of China back in January and December. I would've expected to see what they were seeing and what they were thinking and understanding about the Chinese response, the Chinese government's response. And throughout this I would be expecting to get from them information about what other countries are doing, how they are postured, how much confidence we [...]

Rebecca Skoryanc2020-04-17T16:04:15-04:00April 15, 2020|Cybersecurity & Defense|

Nick Rasmussen quoted in Philanthropy Magazine article, “When Extremists Leave Prison, Who Helps Them Find a New Life?”

"'How do you know it’s going to work?' That is a question Nick Rasmussen hears a lot, often from Members of Congress. Like Munter, Rasmussen spent most of his working life in government, most recently as director of the National Counterterrorism Center. When he left the public sector and went to work at the McCain Institute in 2017, he was inspired by a vision to address 'gaps' in national security that government can’t fill. As part of that, he now leads [...]

Rebecca Skoryanc2020-04-17T16:08:45-04:00April 14, 2020|Cybersecurity & Defense|

Lisa Monaco interviewed on CNN’s Newsroom

"A week before the inauguration, I led an exercise that had the outgoing national security team from the Obama administration sitting side-by-side with the incoming national security team for the Trump administration. We sat in a very large room on the White House campus and walked through a series of scenarios. One was very specifically a pandemic scenario, and it raised exactly the types of questions that we've been confronting for many weeks: shortage of supplies; vulnerable populations; when to close [...]

Rebecca Skoryanc2020-04-17T16:03:17-04:00April 13, 2020|Cybersecurity & Defense|

Lisa Monaco quoted in POLITICO article, “Inside America’s 2-Decade Failure to Prepare for Coronavirus”

"'I would get asked, what keeps you up at night?' said Lisa Monaco, who served as Obama’s homeland security adviser between 2013 and 2017. 'An emerging infectious disease like a new strain of flu was the thing I worried most about...'" Read the full article here: Full Article

Rebecca Skoryanc2020-04-17T16:07:24-04:00April 11, 2020|Cybersecurity & Defense|

Julie Smith quoted in Der Spiegel article, “How Trump Is Fueling a Corona Disaster”

"'Trump has systematically bled the government dry,' says Julianne Smith, who served as deputy national security adviser to Joe Biden when he was vice president. Trump has failed to fill many important positions in the government or he has dissolved them altogether. In one particularly disastrous move, he abolished the pandemic task force in the National Security Council that President Barack Obama set up after the Ebola outbreak in West Africa..." Read the full article here: Full Article

Rebecca Skoryanc2020-04-17T16:10:00-04:00April 11, 2020|Cybersecurity & Defense, Geopolitical Perspectives|

Bob Work quoted in the National Interest article, “Recent Wargames Show That America’s Military Dominance Over Russia and China Has Ended”

"American forces' over-reliance on large, vulnerable installations and big ships renders moot the high-tech qualities of the stealth aircraft that fly from the bases and the ships, said Robert Work, a former deputy defense secretary who also sat on the CNAS panel. "'In every case I know of, the F-35 rules the sky when it’s in the sky, but it gets killed on the ground in large numbers,' Work said, according to Freedberg... "Work said the Pentagon could free up the [...]

Rebecca Skoryanc2020-04-17T16:06:13-04:00April 10, 2020|Cybersecurity & Defense|

Michèle Flournoy quoted in Bloomberg article, “For the Next Pandemic, Run the Trump Playbook in Reverse”

"There can only be one person in charge. And that person shouldn’t be the president. Yes, have a task force, but it should only consist of leaders with genuine expertise — in infectious diseases, logistics, manufacturing, communication and so on. The person in change needs to be an expert in managing disasters. 'You could take a senior person in industry or a retired military officer and say, "Here’s a chance to serve your country for a limited period of time,"' said [...]

Rebecca Skoryanc2020-04-17T16:05:07-04:00April 10, 2020|Cybersecurity & Defense|

Michael Camilleri writes with Michael Shifter in The New York Times: “It’s Not the Time for War Games With Venezuela”

"With last week’s significant deployment of United States naval assets in the Caribbean, the Trump administration upped the ante in its confrontation with the Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro. For the past 15 months, the administration has applied 'maximum pressure' on Mr. Maduro’s regime, with the hope that the upper echelons of the military — the regime’s main pillar of support — would fracture and trigger a return to democracy. On Wednesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reaffirmed the administration’s commitment to [...]

Rebecca Skoryanc2020-04-14T13:15:40-04:00April 10, 2020|Cybersecurity & Defense, Geopolitical Perspectives|

About Rebecca Skoryanc