Firing of the defense secretary earlier this week, mark t. Esper . It is certainly within the prerogative. Its highly unusual. It was widely suspected he would not continue into a second truck term, but i think that there was an exit dictation he would finish out the term until january 20. That has been the custom host of thesenior people within administration. They would normally continue until the inauguration to be able to remain with their counterparts in the new administration that are going to be coming at. It is unusual. Do these sorts of moves first of all, are they unsettling to the rankandfile members, the rankandfile Service Members and to our allies when they see these administrations . Guest it does. It creates uncertainty. It will not be good for morale. Career Civil Service workers who are there between administrations who are not yes, its a very unsettling and for our allied partners around the world, its this awkward time during the transition where they are not really
This is a really timely conversation, i think, as we look at the world and the state of our politics right now, and the number of crises that were all dealing with, much of it falls at the doorstep of the oval office to be dealt with. And so to help us sort of sort through how president s think about this, we thought who better to convene than a group of former chiefs of staff who have been there on the front line, working arm in arm with the president of the United States, with the last four president s of the United States in tackling various crises. These crises have come in all shapes, sizes, and forms, whether were talking about military action, whether were talking about economic crises, terror attacks, natural disasters, or global pandemics. The guests on our panel tonight have seen it all. So were very fortunate to have them join us. Were going to jump into the conversation in a moment, but one piece of housekeeping, for those of you here on zoom, members of the georgetown comm
Of our politics right now, and the number of crises that were all dealing with, much of it falls at the doorstep of the oval office to be dealt with. And so to help us sort of sort through how president s think about this, we thought who better to convene than a group of former chiefs of staff who have been there on the front line, working arm in arm with the president of the United States, with the last four president s of the United States in tackling various crises. These crises have come in all shapes, sizes, and forms, whether were talking about military action, whether were talking about economic crises, terror attacks, natural disasters, or global pandemics. The guests on our panel tonight have seen it all. So were very fortunate to have them join us. Were going to jump into the conversation in a moment, but one piece of housekeeping, for those of you here on zoom, members of the georgetown community, youll see at the bottom of your screen a q a tab. Thats where you can go ahead
Hi. One year from today or actually 363 days from today, a new president will be sworn in and ill actually be potentially a second biden term, potentially a second trump term, potentially a first nikki haley term. 4000 political appointees will be installed. The federal government, 8000 positions will be decided. And a president will have to pick their priorities and have to work backward from that to try to move them forward. Its an enormous undertaking and we are really delighted today to have three experts in the most complicated transaction that happens on the planet. Weve had turbulent transitions before. Obviously in 2021 we had a very turbulent transition and we have experts on that transition. With us today. But turbulent transitions are also not new. In 1800, we had the first peaceful 1801 we had the first peaceful transfer of power from one Political Party to another ever in human history, because prior to that, we didnt have democracies with competing parties. And that was n