FOCUS ON THE ISSUES
The FBI
at Harvard
04/27/07
 |
| Director
Mueller addresses students and faculty
at Harvard University's Kennedy School
of Government. |
What
better place to discuss the issues of the
day than at the nation's oldest institution
of higher learning.
This
week, Director Robert Mueller and three of
our other high-level Bureau execs traveled
to Harvard to participate in a series of far-ranging
discussions with students and faculty on the
FBI and its evolving role in the post-9/11
world.
The
venues were two-fold:
1)
A Thursday evening speech by Director Mueller
at the University's John F. Kennedy School
of Government, followed by an often pointed
question-and-answer session with students
and faculty. His full remarks—which touched
on the balance between liberty and security,
on national security letters, and on the MI-5
debate—are posted
on this website.
2)
A series of discussions on the FBI since 9/11
followed on Friday at the Harvard Business
School. The Director joined Associate Deputy
Director Joe Ford, Associate Executive Assistant
Director Phil Mudd of our National Security
Branch, and Deputy Assistant Director Sal
Hernandez of our Cyber Division as 900 first-year
business students discussed two FBI case studies
in their Strategy Class. Each exec participated
in one of the sessions, listening to the debate
and sharing their perspectives at the end
of class.
The
Harvard Business School Case Study was the
project of Professors Jan Rivkin and Michael
Roberto. The project began more than a year
ago, and the professors had wide access to
the FBI and our management team for the study.
For
his part, the Director spent a very interesting
and spirited hour with the students talking
about the business process of ramping up the
rapid changes immediately post-9/11 to shift
our focus to intelligence and to the prevention
of terrorist attacks. He then joined them
in discussing the more gradual evolution of
that process over the past five-and-a-half
years.
The
students were then challenged to put themselves
in the place of the Director or the President
and game out how they would lead the FBI forward.
The discussion touched on how to manage priorities,
focus resources, clarify and streamline chain-of-command,
and more. They also talked about whether the
FBI is best suited for the domestic intelligence
role or whether a stand-alone agency like
MI-5 would be more effective.
Director
Mueller explained the FBI's history in intelligence
gathering as well as the crossover between
criminal activity and terrorist fundraising.
He spoke of the long established and critical
relationships developed over 99 years with
18,000 local law enforcement agencies—relationships
that would be hard to replicate quickly for
a new agency. The students asked detailed
and well-informed questions and had a diversity
of positions and opinions. They gave the Director
a standing ovation at the end of the class.
The Director also addressed a larger group
of students of the Harvard Business School
on transformation and management.
The
discussion continues. For the FBI—and
the students, we believe—it was all time
well spent. As the Director pointed out in
his speech, it's important that the Bureau
continue to talk about these issues and remain
transparent and accountable to the nation.
"We welcome this scrutiny, painful though
it sometimes is, because we understand that
our ability to protect the American people
depends in large part on the people's ability
to trust the FBI," he said. "We
are servants of the people and guardians of
the Constitution."
Resources:
-- The
Director's Harvard Remarks
-- Background
on National Security Letters
-- Recent
Editorial on MI-5
