A Summary of Remarks by Adm. Michael Mullen, Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Summary
Drawing from deep experience over a 43-year military career that spanned the globe and culminated in service as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under both President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama, Admiral Michael Mullen shared his views about the geopolitical state of the world. Vladimir Putin is at the top of Mullen's geopolitical worry list, followed by Iran and then, after a significant gap in terms of concern, ISIS, which Mullen believes is a somewhat temporal phenomenon. With respect to issues more closely tied to the domestic realm, Mullen said that his biggest worries are the high level of U.S. debt, the low quality of "zero–to-12" education, and our political polarization and paralysis. Another issue Mullen cited—one that straddles the international and domestic realms—is cyber security, which he believes poses an existential threat to the United States, in that cyber attacks have the potential to change our way of life.
