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After an election, the president-elect starts to think about who they would entrust the national security of the United States to at the highest level. The president chooses their National Security Advisor and nominates a Secretary of Defense, Secretary of State, Director of National Intelligence, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, and more. Our panel of national security reporters intends to shed light on who they think will be assigned to play these key roles within the next Trump administration.

The Trump administration will inherit wars on two fronts: Israel’s conflict with Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis in the Middle East and Russia’s War with Ukraine in Eastern Europe. Our panel of reporters will parse out how the new administration may engage both diplomatically and/or militarily in these conflicts.

In addition to conflict in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, conflict in the Indo-Pacific remains on the table. According to the National Defense Commission’s latest report in July 2024, China aims to develop the capacity to invade Taiwan by 2027. Even a blockade of Taiwan by China could cost the world 5 trillion dollars or 5 percent of global GDP annually. The panel will discuss the pacing threat with China and how the U.S. military can maintain a posture in the Indo-Pacific to deter threats to ourselves and our allies.

Panel Members:

Ken Dilanian: Ken is an NBC News national security reporter for the NBC News Investigative Unit, based in Washington DC. Previously, he spent 24 years as an award-winning print investigative reporter, covering national security for the Associated Press, the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, and The Philadelphia Inquirer. Ken posted for three years as a foreign correspondent based in Rome. He covered Europe and the Middle East and made multiple trips to Iraq, embedding with U.S. troops to report on the war, while also operating independently from Baghdad. He is a graduate of Williams College with a degree in political science and history.

Amy Mckinnon: Amy is an award-winning national security and intelligence reporter at Foreign Policy. She has reported from across Eastern Europe and was previously based in Moscow and Tbilisi, Georgia, as senior editor for the crisis reporting site Coda Story. Mackinnon is a recipient of the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award for her reporting on homophobic vigilantes in Russia. She speaks Russian and has a master’s degree in journalism from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY and a dual master’s in Russian, Central, and East European studies from the University of Glasgow and Corvinus University of Budapest.

Warren Strobel: Warren covers intelligence and security at The Wall Street Journal. He has traveled with seven US secretaries of state and two presidents. He and his colleagues’ work at Knight Ridder Newspapers challenging the Bush administration’s case for invading Iraq was featured in the 2018 Rob Reiner movie, Shock and Awe. He was White House and State Department correspondent for the Washington Times and is the author of articles in American Journalism Review and The Christian Science Monitor. He was a fellow at the United States Institute of Peace in 1994-95.

Moderator, Larry Pfeiffer: The Director of the Hayden Center, Larry had a distinguished 32-year career in the US Intelligence Community, including stints as Senior Director of the White House Situation Room and Chief of Staff to Director of the Central Intelligence Agency Michael V. Hayden.

Immediately following the panel, there will be a reception with FREE food and beverages for all in-person attendees in the adjacent Multipurpose Room.

The event will also be recorded for use on our website and YouTube channel.

NOTE: VIRTUAL VIEWERS ATTEND LIVE ON YOUTUBE HERE