Marc Thiessen

Senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, Fox News contributor, Washington Post columnist, and co-host of AEI’s “What the Hell Is Going On?” podcast. He previously served as chief speechwriter to President George W. Bush.

Military Leverage Alone Cannot Secure Lasting Political Outcomes

Former national security officials Stephen Hadley, Robert O’Brien and Michèle Flournoy, alongside AEI’s Marc Thiessen, disagreed over whether Trump’s use of military force, tariffs and allied pressure can produce arrangements that last beyond his presidency. Thiessen and O’Brien argued that coercion has forced overdue changes in allied defense spending and constrained adversaries; Flournoy and Hadley warned that military damage, strained alliances and inconsistent signals do not by themselves constitute strategy. Their central question was whether immediate leverage can be converted into durable deterrence, political settlements and institutions.

The Aspen InstituteJul 16, 202612 min read