Lieutenant General and advisor to Hillary Clinton Paul Selva spoke Tuesday night to the Foreign Affairs Symposium (FAS) about the organizational challenges the US faces in maintaining its leadership role on the world stage. A senior Air Force officer who works closely with top figures in the Obama Administration’s State and Defense Departments, Selva promotes cooperation between two agencies with a history of friction.
Selva is an assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen, America’s top military advisor. However, most of Selva’s time is spent in the State Department, where he serves as the top military advisor to Clinton, who is the current Secretary of State.
Selva noted the history of conflict between the State Department and the military, with the former historically supporting a more multilateral foreign policy with a military force only as a last resort and the latter often supporting military force as the most practical solution to global challenges.
However, Selva claimed that the Obama Administration offered an historic departure from this general pattern, noting that Secretary of State Clinton and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates share a similar world view and a close personal relationship.
“With Secretary Clinton and Secretary Gates, you have one of the few times in history where the Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense share the same politico-military worldview,” Selva said. Selva noted that rivalry between these two positions has historically led to the U.S. pursuing mutually conflicting military and diplomatic policies.
Selva made his case for cooperation between America’s military and diplomatic elite the center of a broader argument that today’s leaders must understand
multiple spheres of knowledge, and be able to apply them to unanticipated problems.
This argument resonated with sophomore Eric Altamura. An Army ROTC cadet and FAS staff member, Altamura had the opportunity to share dinner with Selva before his talk. Altamura said he and Selva discussed the importance of a future military officer being knowledgeable about more than just the military.
“The world is changing quickly. Our responsibility as young people is not necessarily to become experts in one narrow field, but more to be able to adapt to unforeseen problems,” Altamura said.
Selva compared foreign policy to a three-legged stool, with the three legs being defense, diplomacy and development.
“If these three legs are in conflict, the stool can’t stand,” he said. He noted that in the Obama Administration, the Defense Department is aware of this fact and is increasingly giving the State Department a larger role in making diplomatic contacts with local leaders in remote areas of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Sophomore Kieran Coleman, an organizer of the event, said he was impressed with Selva’s talk, but noted that it was unfortunate that a new defense secretary, Leon Panetta, was announced just hours after Selva praised Gates’s policies and relationship with Clinton.
“I would have liked to have heard what he had to say about that,” Coleman said.
However, Coleman expressed satisfaction for how the event turned out. “The Foreign Affairs Symposium is proud to host someone of that high stature,” Coleman said of Selva. “[Selva] represents the balance of theoretical and practical training in international security affairs.”
