- 19 Oct 2021
The Eagle Looks East: A Conversation with General (ret.) David H. Petraeus
(This event is organised by MEI Political Economy research cluster.)
Abstract
The tumultuous US withdrawal from Afghanistan marked the end of America’s “forever wars” and also highlighted the shift in America’s focus – away from the Middle East and Central Asia and towards the Indo-Pacific.
General (ret.) David H. Petraeus, former head of the CIA and former commander of the US Central Command, will discuss America’s shifting strategic priorities in a conversation with the Middle East Institute, National University of Singapore (MEI-NUS).
Among other things, the discussion aims to map out how the US’ focus on the Indo-Pacific will shape its military and intelligence strategies. It will also tackle the question of how Russia and China’s jockeying for strategic positioning vis-a-vis the US will affect security and the regional military balances. This session will be moderated by Dr Alessandro Arduino, Principal Research Fellow, (MEI-NUS).
This public talk will be conducted online via Zoom on Tuesday, 19 October 2021, from 8.30 pm to 9.30 pm (SGT). All are welcome to participate. This event is free, however, registration is compulsory. Successful registrants will receive a confirmation email with the Zoom details closer to the date of the event.
Image caption: Commander of US Central Command Army General David Petraeus testifies during a hearing before the House Armed Services Committee on Capitol Hill on 2 April 2009 in Washington, DC. Photo by Alex Wong / Getty Images via AFP.
Listen to the full event here:
Watch the full event here:
About the Speakers
[Moderator] Dr Alessandro Arduino
Principal Research Fellow
Middle East Institute, National University of Singapore (NUS)
General (ret.) David H. Petraeus served over 37 years in the US military, culminating his career with six consecutive commands – five were in combat, including command of the Surge in Iraq, the US Central Command and coalition forces in Afghanistan.
Following his retirement from the military and after the US Senate’s confirmation by a vote of 94-0, he served as director of the CIA during a period of significant achievements in the global war on terror, established important digital initiatives and made significant investments in the agency’s most important asset – its human capital.
General Petraeus is a Partner and Chairman of the KKR Global Institute, which he established in 2013. He is also a member of the boards of directors of Optiv and OneStream, a venture investor in some 20 start-ups and has engaged in a variety of academic endeavours.
He graduated with distinction from the US Military Academy and is the only person in the US Army’s history to be the top graduate of both the demanding US Army Ranger School and the US Army’s Command and General Staff College. He also earned a PhD from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs.
General Petraeus taught international relations and economics at the US Military Academy in the mid1980s, was a visiting professor of public policy at the Honors College of the City University of New York from 2013 through 2016 and for six years, he was a Judge Widney professor at the University of Southern California and a senior fellow at Harvard University’s Belfer Center. He is currently a Visiting Fellow at Yale University’s Jackson Institute, Co-chairman of the Global Advisory Council of the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, Senior Vice President of the Royal United Services Institute, a member of the Trilateral Commission as well as a member of the boards of the Atlantic Council, the Institute for the Study of War and over a dozen veterans’ service organisations.
Over the past 15 years, General Petraeus was named one of America’s 25 Best Leaders by US News and World Report, a runnerup for Time magazine’s Person of the Year, the Daily Telegraph Man of the Year, a Time 100 selectee, Princeton University’s Madison Medalist and one of Foreign Policy magazine’s top 100 public intellectuals in three different years. He has also earned numerous honours, awards and decorations, including four Defense Distinguished Service Medals, the Bronze Star Medal for Valor, two NATO Meritorious Service Medals, the Combat Action Badge, the Ranger Tab, Master Parachutist and Air Assault Badges. In addition, General Petraeus has been decorated by 13 foreign countries.
[Moderator] Dr Alessandro Arduino is the Principal Research Fellow at the Middle East Institute, National University of Singapore (MEI-NUS). He is the
Co-director of the Security & Crisis Management International Centre at the Shanghai Academy of Social Science and an Associate at Lau China Institute, King’s College London.
His 20 years of experience in China encompasses security analysis and crisis management. His main research interests include China, Central Asia and Middle East and North Africa relations, sovereign wealth funds, private military/security companies and China’s security and foreign policy.
Dr Arduino is the author of several books and he has published papers and commentaries in various journals in Italian, English and Chinese. His most recent book is China’s Private Army: Protecting the New Silk Road (Palgrave, 2018) and has been appointed Knight of Order of the Star of Italy by the president of the Italian Republic.
