Long known as one of the hard-liners against terrorists, Richard Clarke served the last three Presidents as a senior White House Advisor. Over the course of an unprecedented 11 consecutive years of White House service, he held the titles of: Special Assistant to the President for Global Affairs, National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism, and Special Advisor to the President for Cyber Security. In total, he has worked for seven presidents and devoted three decades to combating the terrorist threat to America.
In his latest book, Cyber War: The Next Threat to National Security and What to Do About It, Clarke exposes the irony behind the US cyber situation; although the U.S. pioneered the technology behind cyber warfare, outdated thinking, policies, and strategies make us vulnerable to losing any cyber contest with a hostile nation. Timely and thought-provoking, Cyber War begins the critical and chilling debate about the next great threat to national security.
In his explosive 2004 New York Times best-seller “Against All Enemies: Inside America’s War on Terror,” Clarke charges that President George W. Bush’s administration took lightly the threat of al-Qaida prior to 9/11 and afterward focused on Iraq rather than Osama bin Laden. The book also outlines both successes and failures of President Clinton’s administration’s efforts to combat al-Qaida, why we failed to prevent the horrific attacks on 9/11, the Bush administration’s response to the attacks, and the hidden costs of invading Iraq.
Though a great deal has happened since “Against All Enemies” was released, Clarke argues that none of it has made us more secure in his 2008 release, “Your Government Failed You: Breaking the Cycle of National Security Disasters.” In this explosive book, Clarke draws upon more than three decades of Government experience as he attempts to understand why, in his opinion, the U.S. government – despite all of its resources – still continues to perform so poorly at national security.
Clarke is also an accomplished fiction writer, having released his second novel, “Breakpoint,” in 2007. Set in 2012, the story is set in a “global village,” where a computer program has been built to outsmart the human brain. A group of men and women come together to find and stop the terrorist group before they succeed in destroying global government, economic and communication systems. “Breakpoint” was released two years after Clarke’s first work of fiction, “The Scorpion’s Gate,” in which Islamic fundamentalists take control in Saudi Arabia and the United States appeared headed toward another war in the Middle East.
At the podium, Clarke draws from his 30 years of government service to provide a fascinating and unique look at the current administration, and a powerful history of America’s decades-long confrontation with terrorism. Telling the complete story, the ultimate insider tackles the inner workings of the White House and speaks truth about the war on terror.
AT A GLANCE: Prior to an unprecedented 11 consecutive years of White House service, Richard Clarke served for 19 years in the Pentagon, the Intelligence Community and State Department. During the Reagan Administration, he was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence; and under the first Bush Administration, he was Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs, coordinating diplomatic efforts and subsequent security arrangements to support the 1990-91 Gulf War. In total, he has worked for seven presidents and devoted three decades to combating the terrorist threat to America.
As Chairman of Good Harbor Consulting LLC, Clarke today advises clients on a range of issues, including: corporate-security risk management, information-security technology, dealing with the Federal Government on security and IT issues, and counterterrorism. Clarke is also an on-air consultant with ABC News and director of the Hart-Rudman Task Force on emergency responders.
