New Center for National Policy President Hopes to Rescue U.S. Infrastructure
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By Melissa Lafsky, The Infrastructurist
It
seems that U.S. infrastructure has a new friend
in Washington. The Center for National Policy,
a think tank focused on national and global
security, has named Dr. Stephen Flynn as its
newest president. Former presidents of the
group include Cyrus Vance, Edmund Muskie, and
Madeleine Albright, while its list of board
members has included former Treasury Secretary
Robert Rubin, former Speaker of the House
Thomas Foley, and Leon Panetta.
Flynn, a
former senior fellow for counterterrorism and
national security at the Council on Foreign
Relations, and the author of The Edge of
Disaster: Rebuilding a Resilient Nation and
America the Vulnerable: How Our Government Is
Failing to Protect Us from Terrorism, has
announced that his top priority will be
"responding to the crisis of America's
deteriorating infrastructure as a national
security and economic imperative." He made the
following statement in a press release:
We've long been bemoaning the state in which the U.S. has found itself -- a once excellent infrastructure system that has, through decades of neglect, found itself in increasing obsolescence and disrepair. Add to this the hundreds of billions spent with little result, and the thorny layers of bureaucracy that prevent swift and comprehensive action, and you've got a dire situation that draws no clear solutions and, if left unchecked, could create a serious threat to public safety. What we need is a new paradigm for large-scale infrastructure projects -- one that we hope the new administration, as well as newcomers like Flynn, can successfully usher in.
