R. James Woolsey U.S. Must Gear Up for Challenge Of Terrorism, Says Former CIA Chief by John Shaw R. James Woolsey, the former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, has been ahead of the curve for much of his career. Speaking to the World Affairs Council in 1992, less than a year after the Soviet Union collapsed, Woolsey predicted that the post-Cold War world would prove to be more difficult for the United States to manage than had its long struggle against communism. Woolsey warned that the proliferation of ballistic missiles, chemical and bacteriological weapons, nuclear materials and the spread of virulent forms of nationalism would pose perplexing problems for policymakers. "The world, although less dangerous with respect to a single cataclysmic exchange between the United States and the Soviet Union, has traded that danger for a number of very, very difficult international problems," he said. In 1997, Woolsey wrote a much-discussed essay with Harvard professor Joseph Nye that warned that a punishing terrorist attack against the United States was all but inevitable. "Given the current geopolitical state of the world, there is every indication that terrorism will be the most likely physical threat to the U.S. homeland for at least the next decade. Such terrorism could cause damage of unprecedented magnitude and severity," they wrote. In an interview at the Shea & Gardner law firm where he is a partner, Woolsey said the challenges the United States now confronts are going to require careful, disciplined and forceful action. "We left the fun and easy times of the 1990s the moment that second plane hit the World Trade Center on Sept. 11. That attack was the functional equivalent of Pearl Harbor and the Great Depression striking at once," he said. "Weíre at war, and weíll be at war for years. Weíre going to have to do things differently. Hopefully, we can continue to live pleasant lives, but they will be more guarded lives. And a lot of people will be called upon to be heroes again and again. I think weíre up to it. We won three world wars in the last centuryótwo hot wars and a cold one. We have to win this war," he added. Affable, intense and self-deprecating, Woolsey is a respected member of the American foreign policy establishment. Born in Tulsa, Okla., in 1941, Woolsey studied as an undergraduate at Stanford University, attended Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar and earned a law degree from Yale University. While serving in the army, he was selected to be an advisor to the U.S. delegation at the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (START) held in Helsinki and Vienna. He worked as general counsel to the Senate Committee on Armed Services in the early 1970s and later was appointed as undersecretary of the navy for President Jimmy Carter. Woolsey was a delegate-at-large to the START and Nuclear and Space Arms talks that were held in Geneva between 1983 and 1986. He also served as ambassador to the Negotiation on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe from 1989 to 1991. One of Woolseyís key mentors was Paul Nitze, the legendary diplomat who served in senior national security posts for more than 50 years. Woolsey said he learned from Nitze the importance of careful preparation, rigorous analysis and clear long-term objectives. Moving in and out of government service, Woolsey has practiced law at Shea & Gardner for 21 years, on four occasions, since 1973. Woolsey has served on a number of key panels that have shaped American foreign policy including the Bremer Commission on terrorism in 1999-2000, the Rumsfeld Commission on ballistic missiles in 1998, the Packard Commission on defense management in 1985-86 and the Scowcroft Commission on strategic forces in 1983. He was the CIA director from 1993 to 1995 for President Bill Clinton. He said he enjoyed the challenge of leading the American intelligence community but was frustrated by Clintonís limited interest at that time in intelligence. "I sort of wandered in and wandered out of the Clinton administration," he said. He joked that many believed that he piloted the small plane that crashed into the White House in 1994 seeking a rare appointment with Clinton. "I wasnít quite that desperate for a meeting," he quipped. After leaving the CIA, Woolsey became a sharp critic of the Clinton administration, saying it focused too many of its energies on short-term public relations and too little on long-term strategic planning. As he discussed American society, Woolsey is fond of a metaphor used by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to describe the United States as a wagon train society. Woolsey said he shares Eisenhowerís view that America is a society that is able to summon its energy to do difficult tasks for a limited period of timeósuch as the 19th-century wagon train journeys across the countryóand then relaxes its efforts and returns to less demanding pursuits. He said that once the United States has identified an enemy or has established an ambitious goal, it is relentlessly focused and remarkably successful. He cites as examples the American response to Pearl Harbor in 1941, the effort in the 1960s to send a man to the moon, and the U.S.-led war to evict Iraq from Kuwait in 1991. But he added that the United States often grows complacent between intense periods of national exertion. He said American behavior during the 1920s and 1990s serves as a clear warning about the dangers of self-absorption. "The 1990s, like the 1920s, were a good and easy time. It was like the whole country went to a beach party. But thatís now over," he said. Woolsey has long argued the United States faces daunting international challenges that must be confronted. Last year, he was one of a group of experts asked by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to spell out the key challenges of the United States. He noted that the nationís top priorities should be homeland defense, clear and firm policies with Russia and China, confronting the threats of rogue states and terrorists, and working to free the United States from a heavy reliance on imported petroleum. Woolsey said all of these issues require special attention since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Regarding homeland defense, Woolsey said the United States must do far more to protect itself. "We will need to make changes in the way we live. We are going to have to do a lot of things differentlyódecentralize electric power production, make sure our oil and gas pipelines are more secure, protect computers and networks on the Internet from hackers and intentional interference," he said. Woolsey said an important step is to build a strong missile defense system, adding that there is no strategic rationale for the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty, which limits development of a missile defense system. He said the United States should get out of the restrictions imposed by the ABM treaty either by negotiating a new agreement with Russia, unilaterally withdrawing from the 1972 treaty, or simply declaring the pact void because the Soviet Union no longer exists. Woolsey added that the United States should even encourage Russia to build its own ballistic missile defense and early warning systems. The former CIA chief said Russian President Vladimir Putin has sent positive signals to the United States since the Sept. 11 attacks. "If you look at everything on balance, Putin appears to be moving toward a closer association with the U.S. The events of Sept. 11 may make it possible, even necessary, for the U.S. and Russia to work more closely together in an attempt to take on a common enemyóinternational terrorism," he said. Woolsey said he is uncertain how cooperative China will be in the war against terrorism. "For China, the jury is still out. China remains far more guarded, suspicious, and potentially hostile to the U.S. China is still a dictatorship, an interesting and complicated one, but a dictatorship nonetheless," he said. Woolsey said aggressive American policies are required to confront terrorists and rogue states, such as Iraq, Libya and North Korea. He said there are substantial and growing indications that a nationóperhaps Iraqówas involved in the Sept. 11 attacks, adding it may have been a joint venture between rogue states and terrorist groups. He argued that the United States should lift restrictions on the CIA and the FBI in their efforts to confront terrorist threats. "I think that out in the country there is a huge reservoir of sadness and absolute fury. I think there is enthusiasm for utterly destroying the people and governments that have done this to us," he said. Woolsey said that the United States has to get away from its reliance on imported petroleum, which places it at the mercy of "vulnerable autocrats and pathological predators." Oil, he said, is a magnet for conflict because all nations require energy and the sources of the worldís transportation fuel are concentrated in relatively few countries. More than two-thirds of the worldís remaining oil reserves are in the Middle East including the Caspian basin. He believes that recent and prospective breakthroughs in genetic engineering and processing are radically changing the viability of ethanol as a transportation fuel. New biocatalystsógenetically engineered enzymes, yeasts and bacteriaóare making it possible to use virtually any plant or plant product to produce ethanol. Woolsey said that if genetically engineered biocatalysts and advanced processing technologies can make the transition from fossil fuels to biofuels affordable, the worldís security picture would be different in many ways. It would be impossible to form a cartel that would control the production, manufacturing and marketing of ethanol fuel. The federal government, he said, should boost investment in renewable energy research, and the tax code should be adjusted to encourage private investment in new energy technologies. Woolsey leads a busy life in Washington. His law practice focuses on civil litigation, alternative dispute resolution and corporate transactions with a growing international focus. He sits on seven corporate boards and writes and speaks frequently on foreign affairs, defense, energy and intelligence. He loves to sail and read history. He recalled strolling through Civil War battlefields on family vacations when he was a young boy. "Iím a frustrated history professor," he said. Woolsey believes the United States is entering a fundamentally new period in its history. "I think the war weíre in now will probably take longer than World War II did for usóthree years and eight monthsóand hopefully not as long as the Cold War, which lasted over 40 years. Itís a war that will be measured in years and maybe even decades," he said. But he remains confident in the outcome. "Three times in the 20th century we took on five powerful countries, several of them empires: imperial Germany, fascist Italy, the Third Reich, the Japanese empire and the Soviet Union. All of these regimes are gone and these nations have become democracies, although Russia is still a very imperfect one. Over the long run I would bet on us. But we are going to have to do some things with the degree of dedication and intensity we did in the Second World War," he added. John Shaw is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.