Wilson School professor Mullen lectures on U.S. strategy

Wilson School professor Admiral Michael Mullen spoke on the values that the United States should have when interacting with other countries, whether for war or diplomacy, in a Thursday lecture.

Mullen, a retired U.S. Navy admiral and a veteran of the Vietnam War and the Gulf War, is a Charles and Marie Robertson Visiting Professor at the Wilson School and is the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

“It’s a multi-polar world now, we’re much more interdependent than what we used to be. We can’t do it alone like we used to be able to,” he explained, referring to a “strategic narrative” that the United States needs for a future focused on prosperity and security.

He recommended these ideas to a Navy captain and a Marine Corps colonel, who later researched a strategy for the country in terms of its place on the world stage. The conclusive paper was later published by The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C.

The paper found that the United States, spearheading the international community, had to shift its political and economic focus from containment to sustainment, a transition that would be necessary in a world of mass demographic shifts and the destruction of natural habitats, he noted.

“So how do we create a world that’s at seven billion people today … so that people actually can prosper?” he said.

Part of the solution, he explained, lies in a U.S. focus on education, a thriving economy and hope – citing that these qualities were lacking in countries with recent political turbulence.

“We have to hang our hats on our values … life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, equality, justice, freedom, human rights, democracy, etc.,” he said. “And I think in everything we do, we need to keep those values in mind.”

Mullen noted that part of the value discussion is also a discussion of principles that we care about, principles that are important, among them listening to the needs of other nations, listening to the concerns of the U.S. public and developing an appreciation of culture and history, which Mullen has seen prevalently abroad, but not within the United States.

“That’s not an American trait, but it is something that we, I think, owe [in interactions] with individuals from all over the world,” he added. “Another important principle … is a lack of respect for other people around the world. There’s no one I’ve ever met who doesn’t want to be respected. We have a tendency to overlook that too often as well.”

Mullen went on to discuss how the dynamic of political leadership on the world stage must change, saying that it’s currently Pope Francis, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin who hold the most power.

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“Two of those three are not the ones I’d pick.” he said.

A Q&A session followed the lecture, in which Mullen addressed questions on U.S.-China relations, encouraged a focus on Latin America and Africa and spoke generally on how the United States should approach tensions and developments within the Middle East.

The lecture, titled, “I’m Confused: What is the Strategy of the U.S.?” was open to the public and took place in Dodds Auditorium of Robertson Hall on Thursday at 4:30 p.m.