Hadley and Rice on “Hand-Off”: Foreign Policy Decisions in the 9/11 Era | Uncommon Knowledge

Recorded on June 29, 2023
Condoleezza Rice served as the 66th US secretary of state from 2005 to 2009 and as the. national security advisor from 2001 to 2005. She is currently the Tad and Dianne Taube Director and the Thomas and Barbara Stephenson Senior Fellow on Public Policy at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. Stephen J. Hadley was deputy national security advisor during George W. Bush's first term and is the editor of Hand-Off: The Foreign Policy George W. Bush Passed to Barack Obama, a book that details the Bush administration’s national security and foreign policy as described at the time in then classified transition memoranda prepared by the National Security Council experts who advised President Bush. In this wide-ranging conversation, Hadley and Rice reveal the insights and discussions that informed US foreign policy and national security, particularly in the months and years following 9/11, concerning the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and Russia. Decisions made during the Bush years would impact America and the world for years to come, presaging many of the issues being faced today in the Middle East and in Ukraine.
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0:00 - 1:39 : Introduction
1:40 - 4:06 : Condoleezza Rice: Response Towards 911 Terrorist Attack
4:07 - 5:44 : 911 Attack: What it was like as Deputy National Security
5:45 - 13:58 : Did the Structure (Institutional setup) work?
13:59 - 36:43 : Quote Responses
36:44 - 40:33 : Hopeful analysis towards Russia?
41:34 - 47:13 : Quote Response: “...China as a friend, not an enemy.”
47:14 - 49-54 : Chinese are communists?
49:55 - 54:27 : Africa: How did it advance America’s interests/values
54:28 - 1:04:44 : Final Questions

[@henridelagardere264]

It's not uncommon knowledge that Uncommon Knowledge has the most in-depth and extensive analyses with knowledgeable, high-profile guests.

[@robertj.5012]

I respect Condi but these folks have made some terrible decisions and refuse to look back with genuine criticism in an effort to reduce future conflict.

[@kaylidington]

What an insight! Excellent programme.

[@danielmartin7838]

I was never before afforded the opportunity to witness what an impressive and refreshing person Rice is.

[@darwel007]

Very brave folks to venture into public and launch such self repudiating remarks.

[@David-wc5zl]

We have met the enemy and he is us? "No, we met them and we lost but it's not our fault." -Republicans.

[@rsmith4339]

it's hard to even pick a place to begin . I'm unfamiliar with the gentleman's role , but Ms Rice was up to her neck in the mire of wrong descisions that our country hasn't recovered from to this day .

[@greghuntington9277]

Unusual use of grammar, are you on the spectrum?

[@davidsewell4999]

Like?

[@drakedorosh9332]

He was part of the operation.

[@Aamir_Nagi]

i fear that it's too soon to tell

[@kevinjenner9502]

They should both be subject to the policies they endorsed…CIA Torture Program.

[@aqeelyousuf31]

Superb discussion. I only hoped that a strong Republican candidate like Rice who is supremely qualified would run for office. But.. she's not interested.

[@hofii2]

The "tear down this wall" comment from Condi was great! Out devil advocated the devil's advocate!

[@shirleylee2885]

Shameless and most unfortunate

[@lakid9749]

Rice after the horror of what was done - we praise her - disgusting

[@leonorabarany5061]

They think we are stupid.

[@jimgregory6185]

Better labeled "An apologist view of Whitehouse incompetence".

[@paulhoffer3123]

Love this series

[@johnritter5951]

Scanning the comments below, I must say I've never seen so many negative statements about an Uncommon Sense interview. If I didn't know better, I'd say Americans are beginning to wake up to the shell game we call government. Just act sophisticated as others trumpet your elitist credentials for you, and you're good to go. Please, do go.

[@billallen3696]

So, in summary, we had a practically flawless 8 yrs, eh? What a terribly disappointing "cocktail party" (I was going to say Tea party). Rice, who I once admired, came across as an unapologetic and slightly too cute and arrogant (Korea is our longest war...please) but typical State Department "autocrat." Glibly dismissing the idea that silly and impatient Americans wanted out of Afghanistan when our country is broke, seeing no problem with failed nation building and no WMD and repeatedly elevating her importance in dealing with Putin and the Chinese was so distasteful. I do agree that we should have kept Bagram, but no mention of who was not only responsible for the death of our troops during the disgraceful pullout but also decided to leave people behind, weapons behind and give up Bagram. Peter was in an impossible position, Hadley was measured and pleasant and Rice was a bitter pill to swallow. But don't forget that she knows more about Russian history than just about anybody (nonsense). While I'm at it, the expert Bernard Lewis blew it when he either underestimated or was unaware of what Islam is capable of in his comments.

[@kevinjenner9502]

Among other things, Hadley was part of the White House Iraq Group, tasked with conditioning the American public for the predetermined decision to invade Iraq.

[@danielmartin7838]

She’s not far off the mark. The two most prevalent arguments I hear about supporting Ukraine is money and their issues with corruption. Last week little Kim threatened South Korea with a tactical nuclear strike, which would vaporize the American soldiers there on station. Korea is our longest war and America is impatient.

[@JudithKlinghoffer]

May I suggest that S. Korea, unlike Afghanistan and Iraq, benefits from closed borders. Second, Russia and China have been great powers for centuries and while they may be willing to kow tow temporarily to the US, they do so begrudgingly and for as short a time as they can.

[@peterwebb8732]

Russia is not looking like a Great Power just now.

[@JudithKlinghoffer]

Russia, like China before her. sees her current weakness as temporary. Even France has yet to accept lose of great power status.

[@danielmartin7838]

The CCP and the Russian federation are not centuries old. The CCP does work very hard to convince its people, and the world, that the CCP is China and the other way around. This is not the case!

[@lizgichora6472]

Thank you for your timely discussion on foreign policy.

[@ctpierce181]

I cant imagine the courage you had to summon to ask such tough questions.

[@David-wc5zl]

LOL. This is all prepared by both together. It's propaganda.

[@strech5412]

Tearing down a wall is a physical process which is definitely achievable on a quick timetable. Enforcing “freedom” on others to preserve your own is definitely over the top, and unacheivable. Ask Ronald Dworkin. Please.

[@proudtobeanamerican]

I knew that GW Bush would go into Iraq if he and Cheney were elected, I told people so and it happened. Yes very good point Authoritarians make it so people must fight for their right and freedom we are seeing it today all over the world.

[@kevinjenner9502]

The Downing Street Memos made it clear. Fixing policy and Intel in support of a predetermined decision to invade Iraq…The invasion was declared illegal on Sept 15, 2004 by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.

[@wegder]

I wasn't a real American, I didn't think invading Iraq was smart.

[@lesseelye4747]

No.. you exercised your thought and right of freedom of speech, unique to being an American. In many countries you would have been jailed if not killed for non-conforming thoughts. Sounds like you suffered ridicule but lived to talk about it, which is uniquely American.

[@David-wc5zl]

We the muzzled opposition were the real Americans; certainly not the War Losing Republican Liars.

[@David-wc5zl]

​​@@lesseelye4747LOL. Why are you saying this? Do you think this is wisdom? Only America? Bizarre. That comment was being sarcastic. Opposition voices were squashed during Bush. Pelosi was cut out by media, under threat from people like Rice. Democrats were threatened in rural areas. Ms Rice doesn't believe in American Democracy, LOL. Vietnam 2.0

[@Aamir_Nagi]

it's so funny... I have been looking for literature and discussions regarding post-9/11 foreign policy changes and voila!

[@kingcrazymani4133]

Greetings from Quincy, Massachusetts. Next week, at 1900h August 9, 2023, I will mark the 23rd anniversary of a 3-day strategy of idiocy that continues around me. Some have corrected me and said that I am very wrong; it was really a 5-day strategy. Maybe I will mark the anniversary in the thumbnail building, instead of in Quincy. One never knows.

[@steve-real]

Steve-O! The one man war machine!

[@williamtalcott549]

The early morning of 9/11 I was in my Twin Commander over NY Harbor

[@JieSuCabc]

Good morning Peter

[@strech5412]

So the scramble for Africa is still on - now including America and China.

[@johnnotrealname8168]

"...in the Middle East the model was: when the sunnis are dominates they oppress the Shia, where the Shia dominate they oppress the sunnis and both of them beat up on the kurds." This has got to be a comedy bit, that was hilarious.

[@lesseelye4747]

For me....Democracies succeed with a Constitution centered government that secures private property rights and rule of law. A democracy will thrive, if it allows freedom of speech, limits its powers and provides free competitive market open to all its citizens.

[@kevinjenner9502]

Has nothing to do do with foreign policy.

[@David-wc5zl]

Republicans don't believe in Democracy anymore.

[@redsix5165]

Would love to hear mearsheimer react to this.

[@JieSuCabc]

How many people of the wold agreed that the Iraq war was for democracy.

[@elizabethpeterson455]

It was in order to take the war to their side thus eliminating Hussein's bringing his war to US soil.

[@kevinjenner9502]

The invasion of Iraq was declared illegal on Sept 15, 2004 by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.

[@peterwebb8732]

When Ms Rice says that twenty years is a short period, she isn’t exaggerating. Not only did the US take over a century to become a fully-functioning democracy, but the principles that it was founded on, were developed over at least a millennium in England and Northern Europe. Judgement is easier in hindsight, but it is also deeply unjust. Decisions should be judged on what was reasonably known AT THE TIME.

[@robertholmes12]

A century to become a fully fledged Democracy? What does that have to do with establishing a foreign policy that works for Americans and advances our interests? There almost 800,000 employees in the and almost $1,000,000,000,000 spent on the military, State department, intelligence agencies, national security agencies, et al. They didn’t have enough resources or manpower to figure out an effective foreign policy?

[@andrewbaldwin4454]

She was ludicrously off in her statement about how long it took the US to end slavery. She said something about 150 years I believe, It was just 89 years after independence in 1865. Doesn't she remember Lincoln's speech from two years before at Gettysburg, "Four score and seven years ago"?

[@David-wc5zl]

This is hilarious. "America took 100 years to be a democracy and that's on top of other stuff". It's more like almost 200 years (Thanks Feminism & the NAACP!) And the building blocks of the Constitution are called Liberal Thought.

[@yotamgilad600]

Anthrax from American labs!

[@ericmetts2289]

Of course nothing about building 7

[@ainslie187]

…..Or the lack of _any_ evidence that a 757 hit the Pentagon (surely the headquarters of the world’s mightiest military has a few cameras around its perimeter). Also, no evidence that a plane crashed in Shanksville, and of course no one is too concerned about molten steel pouring out of the Twin Towers or the thermite found in Ground Zero dust samples.

[@robertholmes12]

Nope!

[@maryspencer4274]

There is no other smarter, perceptive, intelligent, forthright and lover of democracy and truly forgiving of our own mistakes than Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice.

[@darwel007]

You just like her demographics.

[@kevinjenner9502]

She’s a reflection of the war criminals she worked with.

[@David-wc5zl]

LOL. The GenX War Losers begin their historical fantasies....

[@strech5412]

Authoritarians give “opportunity to fight for freedom”? Er, fighting is automatically authoritarian.

[@strech5412]

Freedom Agenda / Global Gag Rule on abortion. These two really go together, right?

[@jimgregory6185]

I used to think Ms. Rice was a stellar American and the next President. After this interview it is clear she is as full of B.S. as Bush 2. This kind of leadership is why I struggle being a republican. As a former Marine and Gulf 1 vet, I respectfully submit that i am the demographic you need to court.

[@jimgregory6185]

You all need to let Bush 2 go. He is regarded as a joke but the voting public

[@lawjef]

Condi’s public speaking voice has improved remarkably in recent years. It is still not too late for her to run for the top job…

[@junqalope]

dancing Israelis...

[@jeraldhanson7772]

Rice for President of The United States of America!