Michèle Flournoy

Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Use American English Template:Infobox officeholder Michèle Angélique Flournoy (Template:IPAc-en;<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> born December 14, 1960) is an American defense policy advisor who served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy under President Bill Clinton and under secretary of defense for policy under President Barack Obama.

As under secretary of defense for policy, Flournoy was the highest-ranking woman in the history of the Department of Defense. In that position, Flournoy crafted the Obama administration's counter-insurgency policy in Afghanistan and helped persuade President Obama to intervene militarily in Libya.

In 2007, Flournoy co-founded the Center for a New American Security. She is a co-founder and the current managing partner of WestExec Advisors.

Early life and education

Flournoy was born on December 14, 1960, in Los Angeles, California.<ref name=armedservices>Template:Cite report</ref> Her father, George Flournoy, was a cinematographer who worked on shows including I Love Lucy and The Odd Couple. He died of a heart attack when she was 14 years old.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Flournoy attended Beverly Hills High School in Beverly Hills, California. She was an exchange student in Belgium, where she learned French, for one year.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Flournoy received a BA in social studies from Harvard University in 1983.<ref name=armedservices/> She received an M.Litt. in international relations in 1986 from Oxford University, where she was a Newton-Tatum scholar at Balliol College.<ref name=armedservices/> In 1986, she was a research analyst at the Center for Defense Information.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> By 1989, Flournoy was working at the Arms Control Association.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> From 1989 until 1993, she worked at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, where she was a research fellow in its international security program.<ref name="wax2011">Template:Cite news</ref>

Career

Clinton administration (1996–2000)

Flournoy served in the Clinton administration in the United States Department of Defense, where she was both principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy and threat reduction and deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy.<ref name=Mehta>Template:Cite news</ref>

Flournoy was awarded the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service in 1996, the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service in 1998 and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff's Joint Distinguished Civilian Service Award in 2000.<ref name=bio>Template:Cite web</ref>

While serving under the Clinton administration as a deputy assistant secretary of defense, Flournoy was the principal author of the 1997 Quadrennial Defense Review,<ref name="auto">Template:Cite web</ref> which argued that "determined U.S. forces must be capable of fighting and winning two major theater wars nearly simultaneously."<ref name="Marcetic"/>

She was a primary contributor to the 2001 Quadrennial Defense Review.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Public policy research

Flournoy then joined the Institute for National Strategic Studies at the National Defense University (NDU) as a research professor, founding and leading NDU's Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) working group.<ref name="bio" /><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Flournoy then moved to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), where she worked as a senior advisor on a range of defense policy and international security issues. In 2002, a year before the US invasion of Iraq, she argued for preemptive strikes by the US against foreign weapons stockpiles. Flournoy told The Washington Post, "In some cases, preemptive strikes against an adversary's [weapons of mass destruction] capabilities may be the best or only option we have to avert a catastrophic attack against the United States."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Founder of CNAS (2007)

In 2007, Flournoy co-founded the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) with Kurt M. Campbell.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> She was named CNAS's president.<ref name=wax2011/> Flournoy and Campbell wrote a 2007 policy paper called "The Inheritance and the Way Forward" that advocated for a US foreign policy "grounded in a common-sense pragmatism rather than ideology".<ref name="wax2011" /><ref name="jason">Template:Cite news</ref>

Obama's first term (2009–2012)

Flournoy with Secretary of Defense and former CIA Director Leon Panetta in January 2012

After the 2008 presidential election, Flournoy was selected as one of the review team leads for the Obama transition at the Department of Defense. On January 8, 2009, President-elect Obama announced that he was nominating her as under secretary of defense for policy, to serve under Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> When the United States Senate confirmed her nomination on February 9, 2009, she became the highest-ranking woman in the history of the Department of Defense.<ref name="wax2011" />

In 2009, Flournoy told The New York Times that she had spent much of her adult life steeped in the practice of war. "We're trying to recognize that warfare may come in a lot of different flavors in the future," she said.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

While serving in the Obama administration, Flournoy crafted the administration's policy of counter-insurgency in Afghanistan.<ref name="auto" /> She supported the surge of troops in Afghanistan and helped to design the administration's policy in that regard.<ref name=":0" /> In 2009, as under secretary of defense for policy, she also supported a US "civilian surge" in Afghanistan, coupling increased economic aid with at least 400 new counter-insurgency experts, and doubling the US military presence to 68,000 troops by the end of the year.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

From February 2009 to February 2012, Flournoy was a principal advisor to U.S. Secretaries of Defense Robert Gates and Leon Panetta.<ref name=armedservices/>

On December 12, 2011, Flournoy announced that she would step down in February 2012 to return to private life and contribute to President Barack Obama's re-election bid.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Libya

In 2011, Flournoy, then under secretary of defense for policy, helped persuade President Obama to intervene militarily in Libya,<ref name="DWood">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Hastings" /><ref name="CFR convo" /> despite opposition from members of Congress and key White House advisors, such as Joe Biden, Vice President; Tom Donilon, National Security Advisor; and Robert Gates, Defense Secretary.<ref name="Hastings" /> Flournoy supported the NATO-led imposition of a no-fly zone over Libya to oust resistant leader Muammar Gaddafi, accused of ordering the killing of demonstrators and promising to "hunt the rebels down and show no mercy."<ref name="Hastings">Template:Cite magazine</ref> Flournoy said imposition of a no-fly zone necessitated first destroying Libya's air defenses with US and British cruise missiles targeting the Libyan missile defense system, and US B-2 bombers attacking Libyan airfields.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Rainmaker and think-tanker (Since 2012)

Left to right: Kevin Baron, Michèle Flournoy, Janine A. Davidson, Thomas Ricks, "Is the Pentagon Adapting Fast Enough?" panel discussion at the New America Foundation first annual Future of War conference, Washington, D.C., 25 February 2015

After leaving the Obama administration, Flournoy joined Boston Consulting Group as a senior advisor<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> to its Washington D.C.–based public sector practice.<ref name=BCG>Template:Cite news</ref> It was reported that under Flournoy's direction the Boston Consulting Group's military contracts went "from $1.6 million in 2013 to $32 million in 2016".<ref name="Guyer">Template:Cite web</ref>

In a 2013 conversation with the Council on Foreign Relations, Flournoy said she had supported US military intervention on humanitarian grounds.<ref name="CFR convo">Template:Cite web</ref> Critics who disagreed with Flournoy described the war on Libya as "disastrous" in its destabilization of entire regions in the Middle East and North Africa,<ref name="Marcetic">Template:Cite news</ref> facilitating the transfer of arms to extremists across countries. Two years after the ouster of Muammar Gaddafi, Flournoy defended the US military intervention in Libya, telling the Council on Foreign Relations: "I think we were right to do it."<ref name="Marcetic" />

As well as being, for a time, a member of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board and a member of the CIA Director’s External Advisory Board,<ref name=aspen/> Flournoy was, in 2014, a senior fellow at Harvard's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.<ref name="belfer">Template:Cite web</ref>

At least in 2014 Flournoy sat on the board of the Atlantic Council.<ref name="atlantic">Template:Cite web</ref>

Hypothetical role in Clinton administration (2016)

In June 2016 while she was rumoured to be "Hillary Clinton's Likely Defense Secretary", Flournoy advocated regime change in Syria, supporting "limited military coercion" to remove President Bashar al-Assad from office.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Co-founder WestExec Advisors (2017)

In 2017, Flournoy, along with Antony Blinken, US Deputy Secretary of State in the Obama administration, co-founded WestExec Advisors, a consulting firm, where she holds the post of managing partner.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

As corporate director

In 2018, Flournoy joined the board of Booz Allen Hamilton,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> receiving $440,000,<ref name="The New York Times">Template:Cite news</ref> mostly in company stock options during the first two years since her appointment. She has received some criticism for her role as a director at Booz Allen Hamilton, including by authors affiliated with the Project on Government Oversight (POGO).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

As of December 1, 2020, Flournoy was an advisor to Pine Island Capital, a private equity firm. In December 2020, Pine Island raised $218 million to pay for investments in military and aerospace and other industries. In its September 2020 S.E.C. filing, Pine Island forecast that the Defense Department "will prioritize rapid technological advancements" in artificial intelligence and other technologies.<ref name="The New York Times"/>

Flournoy was in 2018 on the board of directors of Amida Technology Solutions.<ref name=aspen/>

Hypothetical role in Biden administration (2020)

Flournoy was widely speculated to be a leading contender to serve as secretary of defense under President Joe Biden.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> She was tarnished by liberal critics for her international consulting and private equity associations whereas her colleague, Antony Blinken was not.<ref>Jennifer Steinhauer. (8 December 2020). "Michèle Flournoy Again Finds Her Shot at the Top Pentagon Job Elusive." The New York Times Retrieved 20 April 2022.</ref>

During the 2020 presidential transition of Joe Biden, Flournoy had been viewed as being "at the top of Biden's list" to be Secretary of Defense.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In December 2020, Gen. Lloyd Austin was reported to have been chosen instead.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In a webinar hosted by the Israel Policy Forum in June 2020,<ref name="uptoisrael">Template:Cite news</ref> Flournoy expressed concern that Israel's proposed unilateral annexation of the West Bank could lead Congress to deny almost $4 billion in annual US aid to Israel. "I would hate to see some in Congress decided they are going to hold hostage our security assistance to Israel as a way of protesting their policies in the West Bank."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Flournoy added that a fraying of the US-Israel relationship would be disastrous for US interests.<ref name="uptoisrael"/>

During the 2020 US presidential election, Flournoy stated that she opposed lifting economic sanctions against North Korea and Iran, though might support waivers for medical supplies during the global COVID-19 pandemic.<ref name="Heinrichs">Template:Cite web</ref>

In an August 2020 interview with Defense News, Flournoy stated that she favored shifting money from more traditional military expenditures to unmanned systems "that dramatically improve . . . our ability to project power to defend an interest or an ally who's under threat".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In November 2020, when Flournoy was under consideration for Secretary of Defense, she wrote, “the department and Congress may want to consider a new type of funding authority that supports both the development and testing of new digital technologies." The Project on Government Oversight (POGO) criticized Flournoy for using "opaque" language to skirt government oversight.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In June 2020 Flournoy argued that the US must invest in new military technologies and more long-range missiles, escalate US troop deployment to the South China Sea area, and step up roving war games in Asia to deter Chinese aggression.<ref name="War in Asia">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Without such ramped-up US military activity and absent the technology to ward off a Chinese cyber attack on US navigation systems, Flournoy asserted the US could stumble into a nuclear confrontation with China over Taiwan sovereignty.<ref name="War in Asia"/>

In a November 2020 CNAS report, "Sharpening the U.S. Military Edge: Critical Steps for the Next Administration," Flournoy argued the U.S. military must be more competitive with China "to keep its military-technological edge." She called for prioritizing artificial intelligence, cyber warfare, unmanned and autonomous weapons systems.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Political positions

Spencer Ackerman has described Flournoy as a centrist.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite news</ref> Van Jackson, a former colleague, described her approach as that of a "classic liberal internationalist."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Other affiliations

She is a member of the Aspen Strategy Group, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee, the board of directors of Spirit of America, and the board of directors of the nonprofit newsroom The War Horse.<ref name=aspen>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2012, Flournoy was elected as a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

As of October 2023, she serves on the Special Competitive Studies Project's board of advisors.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Personal life

Flournoy's husband, W. Scott Gould, is a retired captain who served for 26 years in the United States Navy Reserve.<ref name=wax2011/> He was a vice president at IBM before becoming United States Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs. The couple has three children and reside in Bethesda, Maryland.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Publications

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External links

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