Juan Zarate on National Economic Security
Former Treasury and NSC official Juan Zarate has an interesting piece on CBS on national economic security. His argument, in a nutshell, is that USG passivity in getting its clock cleaned on cyber-theft of economic secrets is indicative of a larger reticence by the USG “to meld political and economic interests,” which itself “underscores a long-standing structural divide between national security policies and the role of the U.S.
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Former Treasury and NSC official Juan Zarate has an interesting piece on CBS on national economic security. His argument, in a nutshell, is that USG passivity in getting its clock cleaned on cyber-theft of economic secrets is indicative of a larger reticence by the USG “to meld political and economic interests,” which itself “underscores a long-standing structural divide between national security policies and the role of the U.S. private sector in the international commercial and financial system.” After setting out the problem with examples, Zarate proposes solutions, the first of which is that “the intelligence community should prioritize collection and analysis to focus on the global landscape through this national economic security lens.” This is, I think, a nice way of saying that the intelligence community should (if it has not done so already) alter its general policy against economic espionage.
Jack Goldsmith is the Learned Hand Professor at Harvard Law School, co-founder of Lawfare, and a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Before coming to Harvard, Professor Goldsmith served as Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel from 2003-2004, and Special Counsel to the Department of Defense from 2002-2003.
