On Nov. 6, former General Timothy Haugh spoke at a Perry World House event about the global threat landscape and its implications for policymakers, the U.S. economy, and defense.
In conversation with Perry World House faculty director and political science professor Michael Horowitz, Haugh — who formerly served as the commander of the United States Cyber Command and director of the National Security Agency — discussed tensions in Europe, the Indo-Pacific, and the Middle East. He then took questions from the audience before the event concluded.
“We live in a time when the global security landscape is evolving fast, with tensions and conflict in every region of the world in addition to traditional geopolitical factors,” the executive director of Perry World House, Marie Harf, said while introducing the event. “These evolutions are driven in part by new and emerging technologies including, of course, AI, and cybersecurity is no longer a separate and siloed field, but absolutely critical to everything that national security and universities — as we’ve seen this past week — work on today.”
Horowitz’s questions focused on tensions between the U.S. and China in recent years.
On the topic, Haugh stated that U.S.’s national security is driven by the economy, and that the economy can have significant impacts, not only on U.S. national security, but the security of countries around the world.
“I think when you look at the competition that is underway from a technology perspective,” Haugh said, “there will be critical things that occur that will have impacts, not just on the United States, but on the global economy as well.”
Haugh added that China is attempting to replicate the U.S.’s intelligence community.
“China looks and observes the U.S.,” he said. “That advantage [the U.S. intelligence community] is an area that they [China] are trying to replicate.”
College first-year Mason Yang attended the event because of his interest in cybersecurity.
“I was pretty interested in this topic before,” Yang said. “But after the event, I felt I learned so much more from the conversation, and it inspired me to keep up with events related to our country’s national security.”
“I think it is insightful to have someone like Haugh come to Penn and inform us about national security,” Yang said. “You hear from perspectives that you normally don’t have the opportunity to hear from in the news or on TV.”