Challenges Beyond Number:  Making Sense of the National Security Landscape
A Conversation with Rand Beers ’64
Former Acting Secretary of Homeland Security

Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey referred to the current security environment as the “most unpredictable I have seen in 40 years of service.” With a rising China, proliferating terrorist groups such as ISIS,  Russia challenging the fundamental rules of international conduct, and the Syrian war becoming a vortex of regional instability, the current  threat landscape is as bewildering as any the United States has confronted in decades.  Having served at the White House, State Department and Department of Homeland Security in one of the most distinguished government careers of his generation,  Rand Beers ’64,  will assess the panoply of challenges the nation faces and suggest where U.S policymakers need to focus in a conversation with Dickey Center Director Daniel Benjamin.

Rand Beers will receive the James Wright Award for Distinguished Service at this year’s Veterans Day banquet hosted by the Dartmouth Undergraduate Veterans Association (DUVA) and co-sponsored by the Dartmouth Uniformed Service Alumni (DUSA) and the Rockefeller Center. This award is given by  DUSA to “an individual member of the Dartmouth community, who, over the course of a lifetime, has exemplified the ideals of “Service – College – Country”.   Beers served as an officer and company commander in the Marine Corps in Vietnam and went on to a distinguished career in the US Government where he held high-ranking positions including: Deputy Assistant to President Obama for Homeland Security, his fourth NSC assignment under five Presidents, Acting Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Director of the National Protection and Programs Directorate at DHS, which oversees the protection of the nation’s physical and cyber infrastructure and Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs. 

Co-sponsored by the Dartmouth Uniformed Service Alumni (DUSA)