UTAH VALLEY UNIVERSITY – Shifting and potentially troublesome global politics take center stage as former NSA and CIA Director Michael Hayden addressed a packed auditorium at Utah Valley University.
Hayden spoke to students and faculty about several different areas where global politics as we know them are changing and the possible threats we should be looking for. The speech ended with Hayden telling everyone “Buckle up. It’s going to be a tough century.”
The very nature of power is changing, in a dramatic way, according to Hayden. Smaller groups are becoming as big of a problem as foreign governments. “If something is going to go ‘bump’ tonight, and make our world unhappy, I’m betting you it will not be because a malevolent nation state tried to hurt us,” he says. He says groups coming out of fractured or failed nations can pose a much bigger threat than many people would expect, and, while countries like Iraq, Syria and Bosnia do hold seats at the United Nations, their governments are not capable of dealing with these groups. He says, “I’m suggesting to you that the historic, unified state of Iraq is gone and it’s not coming back. The historic, unified state of Syria is gone, and it’s not coming back.”
He also spoke about why Vladimir Putin seems bent on causing confusion and division all over the western world. Hayden says Russia is losing things that would keep them as a regional power, like democracy and entrepreneurship. “When was the last time you bought something from Russia that wasn’t energy, fish eggs or a Matryoshka doll?” Hayden asked.
The rising tension between the U.S. and North Korea has Hayden especially concerned. He says there’s no way Kim Jong Un will stop pursuing nuclear weapons, so, demanding he does will not work.
