本期Hidden Forces播客邀请了美国前国防部长阿什·卡特，他曾在奥巴马总统第二任期期间担任国防部长。卡特部长在节目中分享了他担任国防部长的经历，包括与国会打交道的独特挑战，以及保护公民免受国内外威胁的紧迫性。他还谈到了美国国家安全局监控和针对敌方战斗人员或恐怖分子实施的定点清除行动所引发的宪法冲突。

🤔 **卡特部长谈论了担任国防部长的经历，包括与国会打交道的挑战以及保护公民免受国内外威胁的紧迫性。** 他强调了国防部在应对各种挑战方面的复杂性，包括恐怖主义、网络战争和不断变化的国际关系。卡特部长还分享了他对领导国防部的见解，包括如何与不同的利益相关者合作，以及如何做出艰难的决策。

🤔 **卡特部长还探讨了美国国家安全局监控和针对敌方战斗人员或恐怖分子实施的定点清除行动所引发的宪法冲突。** 他认为，在保护国家安全和维护公民自由之间存在着微妙的平衡，需要谨慎地权衡两者。卡特部长还强调了在现代战争中使用无人机和网络武器所带来的伦理问题，以及如何确保这些技术的负责任使用。

🤔 **节目还探讨了21世纪的战争未来，包括自主武器、人工智能和网络战的角色。** 卡特部长认为，这些技术将深刻地改变战争的方式，并对国际关系产生重大影响。他强调了需要制定新的规则和规范，以确保这些技术的负责任使用，并防止其被滥用。

🤔 **节目中还提到了美国权力在实践中的意义，以及如何看待全球化背景下的国际关系。** 卡特部长认为，在全球化时代，国家之间的合作和竞争将会更加复杂，需要新的思维方式来应对。他强调了国际合作的重要性，以及在应对全球性挑战方面需要共同努力。

🤔 **节目还探讨了美国国防政策的语言和对话中的假设问题。** 卡特部长认为，需要对美国国防政策的语言和对话进行批判性反思，以确保其准确性和有效性。他强调了需要挑战传统思维模式，并寻找新的方法来理解和应对全球安全挑战。

In Episode 90 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with former United States Defense Secretary Ash Carter. Secretary Ash Carter served as head of the US Defense Department during President Barack Obama’s second term in office. Before his time as Secretary of Defense, Ash Carter served in the number two and number three positions at the Pentagon.

As you can all imagine, it was a privilege for Demetri to have a cabinet secretary on the podcast, particularly someone with Secretary Carter’s breadth of experience and scope of responsibilities. His newly published memoir, “Inside the Five-Sided Box: Lessons from a Lifetime of Leadership in the Pentagon” offers an insider’s look at what it was like to head the largest department in the government with its millions of staff members and near trillion-dollar budget.

Demetri begins this conversation by asking Secretary Ash Carter about his experience serving under Barack Obama, the unique challenges of dealing with Congress, and the exigencies of protecting the citizenry from threats, both at home and abroad. Secretary Carter also addresses some of the constitutional conflicts that arise from NSA surveillance and targeted assassinations of enemy combatants or terrorist suspects operating outside of traditional warzones and military theaters.

In this episode, Demetri attempts to identify and do away with many of the assumptions that are embedded in much of the language and in many of the conversations around US foreign policy. This is meant as an honest and informed exploration about the nature of American power and what it means in practice. How we might begin to think about international relations in a gig-economy where people are increasingly working contractually on projects with team members located in just about every corner of the globe?

Also, Dr. Carter has thought extensively about the future of warfare in the 21stcentury, including the role of autonomous weapons, artificial intelligence, and cyberwarfare, topics that he and Demetri discuss in this episode as well.

The overtime to this week’s episode includes an hour-long excerpt from Demetri’s yet-to-be-released recording with renowned political scientist and historian of American foreign policy Stephen Walt. You can gain access to that recording, as well as obtain a copy of the transcript and rundown to this week’s episode through the Hidden Forces patreon page at Patreon.com/HiddenForces.

Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas

Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou

Subscribe & Support the Show at http://patreon.com/hiddenforces

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